About the discussion: Interview with Rost correspondent

About the discussion: Interview with Rost correspondent
January 9, 1924

A source:
Stalin I.V. Works. - T. 6. - M.: OGIZ; State Publishing House of Political Literature, 1947, pp. 1–2.

Only in a week's time will the All-Union Party Conference be summing up the final results of the discussion that has been widely developed in the RCP(b) and its press. Even now, on the basis of the available resolutions of the party organizations coming from the localities, it is beyond doubt that the position of the Central Committee is approved by more than 90% of the entire mass of members organized in the RCP(b).

The Party is aware that our enemies are trying to take advantage of the discussion that has unfolded in order to spread all sorts of fabrications about the imaginary disintegration of the RCP(b), the weakening of Soviet power, and so on. Such an assessment of our discussion is, to say the least, ridiculous. In fact, the discussions that have repeatedly arisen in our Party have invariably led in the end to the elimination of differences. The Party has always emerged from these discussions even more united and strengthened. This discussion revealed the extremely high political maturity of the working masses, who are the bearers of state power in the USSR. I must declare - and anyone familiar with the content of the discussion can be convinced of this - that on all basic political and economic questions, the overwhelming majority of the party dominates [c.1] complete unity of opinion. The foundations of our foreign and domestic policy remain unshakable.

The essence of the dispute, which is discussed with great passion at all meetings of Party organizations without exception, is as follows:

1) Should our Party be a single, independent body with a single will, or, on the contrary, should separate factions and groupings be allowed to form as contracting parties within the Party?

2) Has the so-called New Economic Policy largely justified itself or does it need to be revised?

The Central Committee, together with the overwhelming majority of the Party, thinks that the Party must be united, that the NEP does not need to be revised. The small opposition group, which has a couple of well-known names in its composition, holds a different point of view than the entire party as a whole.

Through an exhaustive and, moreover, completely open discussion, the Party is trying to clarify all the details of this question. The Party Conference will issue its authoritative decision on this issue, binding on all members of the Party.

I am convinced,” Comrade Stalin concluded, “that as a result of the discussion, the Party will be stronger and more united than ever before, and will be able to cope even better with the task of leading the life of a vast country in the conditions of the rapid economic and cultural upsurge that has begun.

Newspaper "Dawn of the East" No. 473,

January 10, 1924