Beria Case

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Draft Resolution of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU "On the criminal anti-party and anti-state actions of Beria". July 4, 1953.

№13

July 4, 1953

Having heard and discussed the report of Comrade Malenkov G. M. on the criminal and anti-state actions of Beria, the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union establishes:

1. In the nearly 4 months since the death of I. V. Stalin, the Central Committee of the Party has done a great deal of work to unite the Party and the people around the tasks of building communism and strengthening the economic and defensive might of our Motherland, to boldly and proactively launch the struggle to preserve and strengthen peace, and to further improve the lives of workers, collective farmers, the intelligentsia, and all Soviet people.

It is known that in connection with the death of I. V. Stalin, the entire bourgeois world was counting on the imaginary weakening of the Soviet state, on a split and discord in the leadership of the party and the state, on the weakening of the connection between the party and the people.

But these calculations of our enemies, as everyone can now see, have been overturned as a result of the fact that the Central Committee has successfully solved the problem of ensuring the greatest unity of leadership, uninterrupted and correct leadership of the entire life of the country.

The main concern of the Central Committee and its Presidium was to ensure unity in the leadership of the party and government.

2. However, in the process of leading the party and the country, the Presidium of the Central Committee of the Party increasingly began to reveal that the member of the Presidium of the Central Committee Beria, who was entrusted with the post of First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and Minister of Internal Affairs, was behaving dishonestly, and later, treacherously using the party's desire to maintain unity, committed a number of criminal anti-party and anti-state actions. Beria's criminal anti-party and anti-state activities, hidden and disguised during the life of I. V. Stalin, began to be revealed step by step after the death of I. V. Stalin, when Beria became insolent and unbridled. With insidious intriguing actions, Beria tried to disunite and split the Leninist-Stalinist leadership core of our party in order to carry out his criminal, treasonous plans.

3. Beria, as a vile provocateur and enemy of the party, tried to place the Ministry of Internal Affairs above the party and the government, to use the apparatus of the MVD bodies in the center and locally against the party and its leadership, against the government of the USSR. As has now been established, Beria turned the MVD workers against the party, demanding that they consider themselves independent of the party. In doing so, Beria criminally violated the resolution of the CPSU Central Committee of December 4, 1952, "On the situation in the MGB", adopted during the life of I. V. Stalin and with his participation, which stated:

"Consider the most important and urgent task of the party, the leading party bodies, and party organizations to exercise control over the work of the bodies of the Ministry of State Security. It is necessary to decisively put an end to the lack of control in the activities of the bodies of the Ministry of State Security and place their work at the center and locally under the systematic and constant control of the party, its leading party bodies, and party organizations."

Moreover, Beria, secretly from the Central Committee and the government, gave instructions to local bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs so that they would control party organizations, fabricate materials on party workers and on shortcomings in party work. Beria attacked those same honest communists, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who considered these anti-party instructions to be wrong, with fierce threats and subjected them to repression. For example, Beria fired the head of the Lvov Regional Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Comrade Strokach, from his job, threatened to arrest him, send him to a camp and "turn him into camp dust" just because he informed the secretary of the Lvov Regional Party Committee about the instruction he had received to collect information about the work of party organizations. For the same anti-party reasons, Beria fired the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Byelorussian SSR, Comrade Baskakov, and a number of other honest communists, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

4. Having achieved the post of Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Beria tried to use the apparatus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to terrorize the party and the government. Beria used the security of the members of the Presidium of the Central Committee to spy on the leaders of the party and government. As has now become known, he established a procedure for mandatory reports by his agents on where the leaders of the party and government were, with whom they met; wiretapping and recording of their telephone conversations was organized, etc. In connection with this, the security apparatus was disproportionately inflated.

Grossly flouting the requirements of the Party Charter on the selection of workers based on their political and business qualities, Beria promoted workers in the Ministry of Internal Affairs based on their personal loyalty to him, clogging the apparatus of the Ministry and its local bodies with dubious people alien to the party, and at the same time expelling from the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs workers previously sent there by the Central Committee and local party organizations.

Beria resisted the Central Committee of the CPSU dealing with the personnel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and sharply objected to the summoning of his deputies to the Central Committee. Without the knowledge of the Presidium of the Central Committee and the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Party, Beria summoned the leaders of local party organizations and dictated his directives to them.

5. As the facts show, Beria tried to undermine the principle of unity and collective leadership in the party. With vile, intriguing methods, he tried to pit the leaders of the party and the government against each other, each of them separately, in order to increase his own "authority." Only an agent of the class enemy could act in this way, seeking to undermine the unity of the party - the main condition for the strength and power of the party.

A weakening of unity in the party leadership, especially in the current complex international situation, would have threatened serious danger. Only thanks to the high ideological and moral cohesion of the party leadership and the government did these adventuristic, provocative attempts by Beria fail.

6. Criminally violating party and state discipline, the insolent adventurer Beria began to single-handedly decide the most important state issues, even those of a special nature, without reporting them to the Central Committee and the Government.

7. As the facts have established, Beria, even during the life of I. V. Stalin and especially after his death, under various fictitious pretexts, in every way impeded the resolution of the most important urgent issues of strengthening and developing agriculture, in particular measures aimed at further raising livestock farming and developing vegetable growing. Now it is certain that this vile enemy of the people set as his goal the undermining of collective farms and the creation of difficulties in the country's food supply.

8. Beria tried to undermine the friendship of the peoples of the USSR, the foundation of the multinational Soviet state, using various insidious methods. Under the false pretext of fighting violations of the party's national policy, Beria tried to sow discord and hostility between the peoples of the USSR and distrust of the Russian people, and to activate bourgeois-nationalist elements in the union republics.
9. Beria’s criminal anti-party and anti-state actions posed a great danger to the party and the Soviet state.

The Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU considers it fully established that Beria is not a communist, but an agent of the class enemy, that he was hatching plans to seize the leadership of the party and the state with the aim of actually destroying our Communist Party and replacing the Leninist-Stalinist policy with a capitulatory policy that would ultimately lead to the restoration of capitalism.

10. 0 Beria's hostile, anti-communist, capitulatory views, and plans towards the capitalist environment are clearly demonstrated by such a monstrous fact as the draft of a friendly letter prepared by him to "Comrade Rankovich", this mercenary of American imperialism and executioner of the Yugoslav people. This is also evidenced by Beria's statements and proposals during the discussion of the German question about abandoning the course of building socialism in the German Democratic Republic, in favor of turning the latter into a bourgeois republic.

11. The Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union resolves:

a) Fully approve of the timely, skillful and decisive measures taken by the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU to eliminate the criminal anti-Party and anti-state actions of Beria, as the only correct ones.

b) To approve the following unanimously adopted decision of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU regarding Beria:

“1. For criminal anti-party and anti-state actions aimed at placing the Ministry of Internal Affairs above the Communist Party and the Government, remove L. P. Beria from the post of Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR and from the post of First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and subject him to arrest and strict isolation.

2. Remove L.P. Beria from the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU and from the Central Committee of the CPSU.”

c) Exclude L. P. Beria from the membership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as an enemy of the party and the Soviet people.

* * *

How could it happen that the agent of the class enemy, the morally corrupt adventurer Beria, remained undiscovered for a long time, was able to deceive the trust of the party and, having finally achieved the post of Minister of Internal Affairs, was able to move on to criminal anti-party and anti-state actions?

Of course, there were reasons such as the lack of vigilance on the part of the leading figures of our party and government, who had failed to see through Beria, the cleverly disguised enemy. It was also significant that during the life of I. V. Stalin, Beria hid his true views and intentions, and after the death of I. V. Stalin, Beria became insolent, decided that his time had come, and with his criminal anti-party and anti-Soviet actions revealed his true face as a man deeply hostile to our party and the cause of communism.

But there are other, deeper reasons.

One of the main reasons why Beria's adventuristic, anti-party and anti-Soviet attempts to place the Ministry of Internal Affairs above the party and government were possible is that for many years, incorrect, abnormal relations had been developing between the party and the organs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Ministry of Internal Affairs had actually acquired too much influence in the system of the socialist state. In fact, for a number of years now, the effective control of the party, the collective leadership of the party over the organs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs had been lost.

All this gave various careerists and adventurers, enemies of the party, who had infiltrated the MVD, the opportunity to try to use the MVD apparatus to terrorize, intimidate and discredit honest party and Soviet state personnel devoted to the cause of communism. Moreover, as it now turns out, careerist, hostile elements in the MVD apparatus tried for a long time to undermine and discredit the leading cadres of the party, including its prominent figures.

Our party must draw all the lessons and conclusions from the Beria case for its future activities.

First. It is necessary to strengthen party leadership at all levels of the party and the state apparatus. To eliminate the serious abnormalities in party life and methods of party leadership that have developed in recent years, which were expressed in the fact that the party congress was not convened for many years, the plenary sessions of the Central Committee were not convened for years, and the Politburo and the Secretariat of the Central Committee worked irregularly.

The task is to ensure the precise implementation of the Leninist principles of party leadership and intra-party democracy, compliance

norms and requirements of the Charter of the CPSU on the timing of convening party congresses, plenary sessions of the Central Committee, and the regular work of all central and local party bodies.

Second. It is necessary to check the work of all organizations and departments, to put an end to the lack of control over the work of any worker, no matter what post he occupies, remembering that party leadership of all organizations is the main condition for their successful work. And, conversely, leaving party control inevitably leads to failures in work and to the decay of workers.
Third. It is necessary to correct the incorrect situation that has developed over a number of years, when the Ministry of Internal Affairs effectively left the control of the party, which gave the enemies who had penetrated there the opportunity to use the apparatus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs against the party.

The party has exposed a number of enemies of the party who have infiltrated the MVD (Yagoda, Yezhov, Abakumov, Beria). The task now is to make it impossible for the enemies of the party to use the apparatus of the MVD. To do this, it is necessary to put the Ministry of Internal Affairs in a certain place in the system of the socialist state as a ministry that is in fact subordinate to the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Government of the USSR.

The task is to ensure that the spearhead of the organs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is truly turned against our class enemies, against our external enemies and their agents, spies, saboteurs, and wreckers. Party organizations are obliged to take under systematic and unremitting control all the activities of the organs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the center and in the localities. This is not only the right, but also the direct duty of party organizations.

It is necessary to seriously strengthen the organs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with party workers, to significantly strengthen party-political work among communist Chekists, educating them in the spirit of selfless devotion to our party, the Soviet people, and the socialist Motherland.

Fourth. It is necessary in all the work of party and Soviet organizations to increase in every way the revolutionary vigilance of communists and all workers. It is necessary to remember and never forget about the capitalist encirclement, which sends its agents into our midst, looking for rotten people ready to betray the interests of the Motherland and carry out the tasks of the imperialists to undermine Soviet society.

When selecting personnel, it is necessary to abandon the businesslike approach to people and strictly adhere to the party principles of personnel selection, which require a mandatory combination of a businesslike and political approach to workers.

Fifth. The strength and invincibility of the Communist Party lies in its inseparable connection with the people. Party organizations are obliged to constantly strengthen and expand the Party's ties with the masses, to be sensitive to the demands of the workers, to show daily concern for improving the material well-being of workers, collective farmers, intellectuals, and all Soviet people, remembering that concern for the interests of the Soviet people is the highest law for our Party.

Sixth. The sacred duty of our entire party is the further strengthening of the indestructible friendship of the peoples of the USSR, the strengthening of the multinational socialist state, the education of Soviet people in the spirit of proletarian internationalism and a decisive struggle against all manifestations of bourgeois nationalism.

Seventh. The vital interests of the Party require a significant improvement in the entire work of Party propaganda and educational work with Communists. It is necessary that Communists study Marxist-Leninist theory not in a pedantic and dogmatic manner, that they assimilate not formulations and quotations, but the essence of the all-conquering revolutionary teaching of Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin, which is transforming the world. Our propaganda must educate Communists and the entire people in the spirit of confidence in the invincibility of the great cause of Communism, selfless devotion to our Party and the socialist Motherland.

Eighth. The highest principle of our party leadership is collective leadership. Only the collective political experience and collective wisdom of the Central Committee can ensure the correct leadership of the party and the country, the unshakable unity and cohesion of the party ranks, and the successful construction of communism in our country.

The task is to ensure in practice the strictest observance of the principles of collective leadership in all party organs.

* * *

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, created 50 years ago by the great Lenin, which has grown into a gigantic force and has been tempered in battles under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin and their comrades, will reject and suppress all attempts to shake its unity, to belittle the role of the party as the leading force of Soviet society.

No enemy of the party will succeed in sowing discord in the leadership of our Communist Party! No renegades and traitors will succeed in breaking the will of our heroic party in its great creative work. In close unity with the people, our party will confidently and firmly continue to solve its world-historical tasks in building a communist society.

RESOLUTION OF THE PLENUM OF THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE OF THE CPSU "ON THE CRIMINAL ANTI-PARTY AND ANTI-STATE ACTIONS OF BERIA" 1

July 7, 1953

Having heard and discussed the report of Comrade Malenkov G. M. on the criminal anti-party and anti-state actions of Beria, the Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union establishes:

1. In connection with the death of I. V. Stalin, the entire bourgeois world counted on the weakening of the Soviet state, on a split and disunity in the leadership of our party and state, on the weakening of the ties between the party and the people. But these calculations of the enemies turned out to be overturned. The Central Committee of the Party, in the past 4 months after the death of I. V. Stalin, has ensured uninterrupted and correct leadership of the entire life of the country, has done a great deal of work to unite the party and the people around the tasks of building communism, to strengthen the economic and defensive might of our Motherland, to further improve the lives of workers, collective farmers, the intelligentsia, and all Soviet people. By implementing the decisions of the 19th Congress of the CPSU, the Party has ensured a powerful upsurge in all sectors of the national economy.

The new peace initiative undertaken by the Soviet government led to a further strengthening of the international position of the USSR, an increase in the authority of our country, and a serious upsurge in the worldwide movement for the preservation and strengthening of peace.

2. The successes of the Soviet Union in the construction of communism, the steady advance along the path of building socialism in the people's democracies of Europe, as well as the powerful economic and cultural upsurge of the great People's Republic of China, the development of the workers' movement in a number of capitalist countries and the national liberation struggle in colonial and dependent countries - all this signifies a tremendous growth in the strength and power of the democratic camp and the world liberation movement.

At the same time, in the imperialist camp, there is a further aggravation of the general crisis of capitalism and a weakening of the entire capitalist system; there is an undeniable deepening of economic difficulties, growth of unemployment, rising prices and impoverishment of workers. As a result of the unrestrained expansion of American imperialism and its brazen dictate to its junior partners and satellites, the contradictions within the capitalist camp are becoming increasingly acute.

Thus, the entire course of world development testifies to the steady growth of the forces of democracy and socialism, on the one hand, and to the general weakening of the forces of the imperialist camp, on the other, which causes deep alarm among the imperialists and determines the sharp activation of reactionary imperialist forces, their feverish desire to undermine the growing power of the international camp of peace and socialism, and above all its leading force - the Soviet Union.

This finds its expression in the frantic arms race of capitalist countries, in military adventures, in attempts to increase pressure on the USSR, in organizing all sorts of provocations and sabotage in the countries of the democratic camp, for which hundreds of millions of dollars are allocated. The imperialists are looking for support in the countries of democracy and socialism in the form of various renegades and degenerate elements, and are intensifying the subversive activities of their agents.

3. The Soviet country, full of invincible power and creative forces, is successfully moving forward along the path of building communism. We have a powerful socialist industry, a comprehensively developed heavy industry, which is the foundation of the socialist economy. Our machine building is steadily advancing, providing all branches of industry, transport, and agriculture with modern technology. The development of technology and Soviet science made it possible several years ago to solve the problem of using atomic energy and to successfully advance this matter further. Our light and food industries have reached a high level and are able to satisfy the growing needs of the urban and rural population on the basis of the price reduction policy pursued by the party and government. In the years after the war, our agriculture was restored, state and collective farms were provided with modern advanced technology to a greater extent than before the war. Remarkable specialists have been trained in all areas of the national economy.

All these successes in the matter of raising the socialist economy and in cultural construction became possible thanks to the strong alliance of the working class and the collective farm peasantry, the growing friendship of the peoples of the USSR, thanks to the steady strengthening of the moral and political unity of the Soviet people, thanks to the consistent implementation of the policies developed by the Communist Party.

With all this, as before, the party must not fail to take into account the existing difficulties and shortcomings in our economic and cultural development.

We must not forget that our country has gone through the greatest trials caused by the war, which led to devastation over a large part of the country's territory and entailed heavy casualties. Enormous efforts were required over a number of years to heal the grave wounds and eliminate the consequences of the war.

It must be acknowledged that we have many lagging industrial enterprises and even individual branches of industry. Many collective farms and entire agricultural regions are in a neglected state. The yield of agricultural crops and the productivity of livestock are low, and do not correspond to the increased level of technical equipment of agriculture and the possibilities inherent in the collective farm system. As a result, we still do not sufficiently satisfy the growing material needs and cultural demands of our people.

It is also impossible to ignore the fact that with the liquidation of the exploiting classes in our country, the vestiges of capitalism in the consciousness of people are still far from being eradicated and that there are serious shortcomings in the matter of communist education of Soviet people. It would be forgetting the foundations of Marxism-Leninism if we ceased to reckon with the fact that there is a capitalist environment that sends its agents into our midst, looking for people who are ready to betray the interests of the Motherland and carry out the tasks of the imperialists to undermine Soviet society.

4. Our party is the organizing and inspiring force of Soviet society. As a result of the correct leadership of the party, the Soviet people have achieved world-historic victories in the cause of building a communist society.

However, there are also significant shortcomings in the activities of our party, both in a number of areas of economic construction and in the area of communist education of workers.

It must be admitted that we have serious shortcomings in observing the party norms and Bolshevik principles of party leadership developed by the great Lenin. Over many years, we have accumulated significant abnormalities in this area. It is in no way justifiable that the 19th Party Congress was convened only 7 years after the end of the war and 13 years after the 18th Congress. Plenums of the Central Committee of the Party were not convened for several years. The Politburo did not function normally for a long time. Decisions on the most important issues of state work and economic construction were often taken without due preliminary study and without collective discussion in the leading party bodies, as stipulated by the Party Charter. As a result of such abnormalities in the organization of the Central Committee's activities, collectivity in work, as well as due criticism and self-criticism, were not ensured. The presence of such abnormalities in practice sometimes led to insufficiently substantiated decisions and to a belittling of the role of the Central Committee as an organ of collective leadership of the Party.

In this connection, it should also be recognized as abnormal that in recent years our party propaganda has deviated from the Marxist-Leninist understanding of the question of the role of the individual in history. This found expression in the fact that instead of correctly explaining the role of the Communist Party as the real guiding force in the construction of communism in our country, party propaganda has often strayed into the cult of personality, which leads to a belittling of the role of the party and its guiding center, to a decrease in the creative activity of the party masses and the broad masses of the Soviet people. This direction of propaganda work diverges from Marx's well-known positions on the cult of personality. "Out of hostility to any cult of personality," wrote Marx, "during the existence of the International I never allowed the numerous appeals in which my services were recognized and with which I was pestered from various countries to be made public - I never even answered them, except occasionally to reprimand them. “The first entry of Engels and myself into the secret society of communists took place under the condition that everything that promoted superstitious worship of authorities would be thrown out of the charter” (Marx and Engels. Works, Vol. XXVI, pp. 487-488).

5. It is necessary to take into account the peculiarity of the position of the Communist Party in the system of the Soviet state. Our party is the only party in the country, and, moreover, it has an undivided leading role in the socialist state. The leadership of the party is a decisive condition for the strength and inviolability of the Soviet system.

At the same time, it is necessary to remember that the monopoly position of the party also has its dark sides, when revolutionary vigilance in our ranks with respect to the class enemy is weakened. We often forget that enemies, cleverly disguised as communists, have tried, and will try to penetrate the ranks of the party for the sake of their hostile goals, for the sake of a career and to carry out subversive work as agents of the imperialist powers and their intelligence services.

6. In this regard, the Plenum of the Central Committee considers it necessary to draw the Party’s attention to the case of Beria, exposed by the Presidium of the Central Committee as an agent of international imperialism.

As is now evident, Beria, cleverly disguising himself, gained the trust of I. V. Stalin through various careerist machinations. Beria's criminal anti-party and anti-state activities, deeply hidden and disguised during the life of I. V. Stalin, began to be revealed step by step after his death, when the enemies of the Soviet state intensified their subversive anti-Soviet activities. Having become insolent and unbridled, Beria has recently begun to reveal his true face as an enemy of the party and the Soviet people.

What were Beria’s criminal actions and treacherous plans?

After the death of I. V. Stalin, the main concern of the Central Committee and its Presidium was to ensure unity in the leadership of the party and government on the basis of Marxist-Leninist principles for the successful solution of the fundamental tasks of building a communist society. With his insidious intriguing actions, Beria tried to disunite and split the Leninist-Stalinist core of our party, to discredit the leading figures of the party and government individually, in order to increase his own "authority" and implement his criminal anti-Soviet plans.

Having achieved the post of Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Beria tried to use the apparatus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to develop his criminal machinations to seize power. As a vile provocateur and enemy of the party, he began by trying to place the Ministry of Internal Affairs above the party and the government, to use the organs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the center and in the regions against the party and its leadership, against the government of the USSR. Beria used the security of the members of the Presidium of the Central Committee to spy on the leaders of the party and government. He established a procedure for mandatory reports from his agents on where the leaders of the party and government were, with whom they met; wiretapping and recording of their telephone conversations was organized, etc.

As has now been proven, Beria turned the MVD workers against the party, demanding that they consider themselves independent of the party. In doing so, Beria criminally violated the resolution of the CPSU Central Committee of December 4, 1952, "On the situation in the MGB", adopted during the life of I. V. Stalin and with his participation, which indicated the need to "decisively put an end to the lack of control in the activities of the organs of the Ministry of State Security and place their work at the center and in the regions under the systematic and constant control of the party."

Moreover, Beria, secretly from the Central Committee and the government, gave assignments to local bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs so that they would control party organizations, fabricate false materials on party workers, as well as on party and soviet organizations. Beria subjected those same honest communists, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who considered these anti-party directives to be wrong, to repression. For example, in June 1953, Beria fired the head of the Lvov Regional Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Comrade Strokach, only because he informed the secretary of the Lvov Regional Party Committee about the assignment he had received to collect and seek out negative information on the work of party organizations and party personnel, threatening to arrest him, send him to a camp and "turn him into camp dust."

Criminally flouting the requirements of the Party Charter on the selection of personnel based on their political and business qualities, Beria promoted workers in the Ministry of Internal Affairs based on their personal loyalty to him, selected people alien to the party and suspicious people, while at the same time expelling workers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs bodies who had previously been sent there by the Central Committee and local party organizations.

As the facts have established, Beria, even during the life of I. V. Stalin and especially after his death, under various fictitious pretexts, in every way impeded the resolution of the most important urgent issues of strengthening and developing agriculture. Now it is certain that this vile enemy of the people set as his goal the undermining of collective farms and the creation of difficulties in the food supply of the country.

Beria tried to undermine the friendship of the peoples of the USSR by various insidious methods - the foundation of the multinational socialist state and the main condition for all the successes of the fraternal Soviet republics. Under the false pretext of fighting violations of the party's national policy, he tried to sow discord and hostility between the peoples of the USSR and to activate bourgeois-nationalist elements in the union republics.

Beria's hostile political face was especially clearly revealed during the discussion of the German question at the end of May of this year. Beria's proposals on this question boiled down to abandoning the course of building socialism in the German Democratic Republic and taking a course of turning the GDR into a bourgeois state, which would mean direct capitulation to the imperialist forces. At the same time, Beria had recently become so unbridled that, under the guise of fighting the shortcomings and excesses in collective farm construction in the countries of people's democracy and in the GDR, he began to openly express anti-collective farm views, including a proposal to disband collective farms in these countries. In light of Beria's exposed crimes, it is becoming clear that he was slipping into hostile positions with regard to the collective farm system of the USSR.

In the very last days, Beria’s criminal plans to establish personal connections with Tito and Rankovich in Yugoslavia through his agents were revealed.

As it turned out, Beria, back in 1919, during the period of the British occupation of Baku, served in Azerbaijan in the White Guard Musavat intelligence service and hid his treacherous activities from the party.

The Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU considers it established that Beria has lost his communist image, having turned into a bourgeois degenerate, and has in fact become an agent of international imperialism, hatching plans to seize the leadership of the party and the state with the aim of actually destroying our Communist Party and replacing the policy developed by the party over many years with a capitulatory policy that would ultimately lead to the restoration of capitalism.

The Plenum of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union resolves:

a) Fully approve the timely and decisive measures taken by the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU to eliminate Beria’s criminal anti-Party and anti-state actions as the only correct ones.

b) For treasonous actions aimed at undermining the Soviet state, expel L. P. Beria as an enemy of the party and the Soviet people from the membership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and bring him to trial.

* * *
Our party must learn political lessons from the Beria case and draw the necessary conclusions for its future activities.

First. It is necessary to strengthen party leadership at all levels of the party and the state apparatus. To eliminate the serious abnormalities in party life and methods of party leadership that have developed in recent years. The task is to ensure the precise implementation of the principles of party leadership and the norms of party life developed by Lenin, strict observance of the requirements of the CPSU Charter on the timing of convening party congresses, plenary sessions of the Central Committee, and the regular work of all central and local party bodies.

The highest principle of party leadership in our party is collective leadership. Only the collective political experience, the collective wisdom of the Central Committee, based on the scientific basis of Marxist-Leninist theory, ensures the correct leadership of the party and the country, the unshakable unity and cohesion of the party ranks, and the successful construction of communism in our country. The task is to strictly observe the principles of collective leadership in all party bodies in practice.

It is necessary to regularly check the work of all organizations and departments, to put an end to the lack of control over the work of any employee, no matter what position he occupies, remembering that party leadership of all organizations is the main condition for their successful work. And, conversely, leaving party control inevitably leads to failures in work and to the decay of workers.

Second. It is necessary to correct the incorrect situation that has developed over a number of years, when the Ministry of Internal Affairs has effectively escaped control of the Party. One of the reasons why Beria's adventurist, anti-Party and anti-Soviet attempts to place the Ministry of Internal Affairs above the Party and the government were possible is that incorrect, abnormal relations had been developing between the Party and the organs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for many years. The Ministry of Internal Affairs had acquired an inordinate amount of influence in the system of the socialist state. In fact, for a number of years now, the effective control of the Party, the collective leadership of the Party over the organs of the Ministry of Internal Affairs had been lost. All this gave various careerists and adventurers, enemies of the Party, who had infiltrated the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the opportunity to try to use the apparatus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to terrorize, intimidate and discredit honest cadres of the Party and the Soviet state devoted to the cause of communism. Moreover, as has now become clear, careerist, hostile elements in the apparatus of the Ministry of Internal Affairs tried to undermine and discredit the leading cadres of the Party, including its prominent figures.

Party organizations are obliged to take under systematic and unremitting control all activities of the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the center and in the regions. This is not only the right, but also the direct responsibility of party organizations. It is necessary to seriously strengthen the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs with party workers, significantly strengthen party-political work among the Chekists, the overwhelming majority of whom are undoubtedly honest and conscientious people, educate them in the spirit of selfless devotion to our party, the Soviet people, the socialist Motherland.

Third. It is necessary in all the work of party and Soviet organizations to increase in every way the revolutionary vigilance of communists and all workers. It is necessary to remember and never forget about the capitalist environment, which sends and will send its agents into our midst for subversive activities.

When selecting personnel, it is necessary to abandon the businesslike approach and strictly adhere to the party principles of selecting employees based on their political and business qualities.

Fourth. The strength and invincibility of the Communist Party lies in its inseparable connection with the people. Party organizations are obliged to constantly strengthen and expand the Party's ties with the masses, to be sensitive to the demands of the workers, to show daily concern for improving the material well-being of workers, collective farmers, intellectuals, and all Soviet people, remembering that concern for the interests of the Soviet people is the most important duty of our Party.

Fifth. The sacred duty of our entire party is to further strengthen the indestructible friendship of the peoples of the USSR, to strengthen the multinational socialist state, to educate Soviet people in the spirit of proletarian internationalism and to decisively combat all manifestations of bourgeois nationalism. It is necessary to eliminate the consequences of Beria's sabotage in the area of national relations.

Sixth. The socialist system has enormous advantages and possibilities for a new, even more powerful rise in our economy and culture, for a further increase in the material well-being of the people. We have inexhaustible natural resources, powerful first-class technology in industry and agriculture, highly qualified workers, and specialists. But it would be wrong to forget that we still have unresolved urgent economic problems, especially in the matter of further raising agriculture (livestock breeding, vegetable growing, etc.). We still have certain difficulties of growth associated with the solution of the gigantic task of maximally satisfying the continuously growing material and cultural needs of the working people.

Party, Soviet, trade union, and Komsomol organizations must mobilize and organize the creative forces of the people in order to fully utilize our reserves and capabilities to solve all these problems, to successfully fulfill and overfulfill the five-year plan for the development of the USSR, the tasks set by the 19th Party Congress.

Seventh. The vital interests of the Party require a significant improvement in the entire work of Party propaganda and political-educational work among the masses. It is necessary that Communists study Marxist-Leninist theory not in a pedantic and dogmatic manner, that they understand the creative character of Marxism-Leninism and assimilate not individual formulations and quotations, but the essence of the all-conquering, world-transforming revolutionary teaching of Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin. Our propaganda must educate Communists and the entire people in the spirit of confidence in the invincibility of the great cause of Communism, in the spirit of selfless devotion to our Party and the socialist Motherland.

The Communist Party of the Soviet Union, created 50 years ago by the brilliant Lenin, which has grown into a gigantic force and has been tempered in battles under the leadership of Lenin, the disciple and successor of Lenin's work, the great Stalin, and their comrades, will reject and suppress all attempts to shake its unity, to belittle the role of the party as the leading force of Soviet society.

The Soviet people, under the proven leadership of the Communist Party, will continue to tirelessly strengthen the might of their socialist homeland. The Soviet people will continue to wage the struggle for a lasting and durable peace among nations, will fully support the consistent peace policy pursued by the government of the USSR, and will continue to tirelessly strengthen friendship with the great People's Republic of China and all the countries of people's democracy. In close unity with the people, our Party will confidently and firmly advance along the path of building a communist society.

1 The text of the resolution was sent out in the form of a closed letter from the Central Committee to party organizations. The verbatim report contains the subtitle: “Adopted unanimously at the meeting of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU on July 7, 1953.”