to Stalin from Magidov

Bolshevik leadership Correspondence. 1912-1927
Collection of documents 1996.
Compiled by: A.V.Kvashonkin, L.P.Kosheleva, L.A.Rogovaya, O.V.Khlevnyuk.

Stalin Correspondences

B. I. Magidov to I. V. Stalin

November 10 [1923]

Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP.

comrade STALIN.

Dear comrade.

Let it not surprise you that I am writing you a personal, informal letter.

This is explained by the fact that what I will describe below, for a number of reasons, I consider it not entirely appropriate to write officially.

When [I] was in Moscow with a report to the Orgburo (in October) 1 , you were on vacation and therefore did not manage to speak in person.

The general state of the party, the inner-party events that took place in October, perhaps I am not entirely accurate, because officially, as secretary of the Gubernia Committee, I am not informed about the events; facts, materials about the situation and mood of the workers of Donbass, which were cited at the last plenum of the Central Committee of the CP(b)U (October 29-31), encourage me, as a member of the party, to write to you.

First of all, such a situation is absolutely abnormal when the secretaries of the Gubkoms are absolutely unaware of the matter, they are not informed by the Central Committee about the internal state of the party, when, to our great common regret, this is talked about everywhere, gossip about it in non-party circles.

I especially have in mind the last disagreement [in] the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party, the statement of Comrade. Trotsky and platform 46. (Neither the statements of Comrade Trotsky, nor platform 46, needless to say, had to be read).

Meanwhile, Soviet and economic workers traveling to Moscow on their departmental business, returning, turn to the secretary of the Gubkom with all sorts of questions for them and, in particular, for the secretary in this case, perplexed questions.

The absence of correct, timely, accurate, if not official, then at least private information, has a very harmful effect on the leadership of Party work.

If only I were in such a position, then it would not be worth writing about, wasting your time and mine.

In such "obscurity and ignorance" is the vast majority of responsible Party workers appointed by the Central Committee of the Party and elected by local organizations to lead Party work.

But all this, dear comrade. Stalin, only a preface.

During the last Plenum of the Central Committee of the CP(b)U, when meeting with many old party members, it turns out that the old party guard is too oppressed.

There is no living party life, party thought is not beating.

The so-called party discipline (applied according to a template) dominates and prevails.

I assure you, comrade. Stalin, that until now the resolutions of the 10th, 11th, and 12th Party Congresses, especially the 10th, on intra-Party workers' democracy, have been poorly carried out and instilled into life.

Meanwhile, the masses, the rank-and-file mass of the Party, including the non-Party masses, have grown up, matured and objectively demand more attention to themselves, yearn to know everything that really exists.

In connection with the latest circular of the Central Committee of the Russian Communist Party and the Central Control Commission of the Russian Communist Party on excesses (No. 58 of 19/X), the questions about “tops” and “bottoms”, about “specialists”, about high rates, about all kinds of bonuses and bonuses, etc. etc. 2

How can one prevent the possibility (and some think the inevitability) of the reappearance of deviations on the part of the rank and file of Party members.

There is only one way: a correct, strictly sustained, clear-cut communist line, and along with this, we ourselves, the leaders of the masses, should be a little more modest - serve as an example and a model.

But this is not really the case.

Example: members of the Union Central Executive Committee and members of the VUTsIK received a salary of 100 gold rubles in September, and 150 in October.

When an ordinary member of a cell working at a machine tool sees that the secretary of the Gubkom pays 35 gold rubles and a membership fee of 5 gold rubles to the commission for improving the life of the communists, and he sees an ordinary member of the party working at a machine tool, the entire monthly salary earned is maximum 25-30 rubles in gold.

Hence, involuntarily, he begins to think about the “tops” and “bottoms”, about blatant inequality, etc.

When the working mass (quite literate) reads an announcement in the newspapers that for October, approximately, the rate for a party member, from which deductions should not be paid, is 80 gold rubles, then the worker involuntarily begins to talk and expresses dissatisfaction with the "tops".

You obviously know that in September and October there were strikes all the time in the Donbass, and in October almost all Donbass went on strike.

The main reason is the delay in the payment of wages. But not only that: the living conditions of the miners of Donbass are worse than bestial ones.

10,000 workers of Donbass prefer to go down into the mines every day, live in the rocks, in the bowels of the earth, 200, 300, 500 fathoms deep, the miner feels better there than in his "apartment".

You know that in the Mine District (Alexandro-Grushevsky District) all the miners (approximately 30-35 thousand) were on strike for ten days and unanimously refused to take the pay sent to them in the amount of 40% of the following.

The workers of Donbass say: what prevents them from “paying off like a miner with the leaders of Donbass for arrogance and mockery of a miner for five years, for systematic deceit and swindle, for not fulfilling almost a single promise, and there were hundreds of them ...

If they had paid off - rest assured - repeats the miner (perhaps incited by the provocation of the Mensheviks) - yes, you can’t be a traitor in relation to the German revolution.

All this was officially said at the plenum of the Central Committee of the CP(b)U by a member of the Central Committee, a responsible representative of Donbass.

It is not entirely clear to us why we pay the 200,000-strong army of Soviet workers carefully twice a month and systematically do not pay the Donbass.

Isn’t it possible with the same right not to pay so carefully (not in the Soviet way neatly) to our co-workers and to pay the miners of Donbass.

We also do not quite understand another circumstance: as soon as the miners go on strike, spend a week, money appears (and the miners take this circumstance seriously).

And why not approach this issue in the most serious (Leninist) way and bring a couple of responsible and most responsible leaders to public trial, if we are not capable of doing anything else.

What is the result - the Poltava province, entirely rural, is set up very positively towards the Soviet power, carefully fulfills all Soviet duties, the unified agricultural tax for November 5 was made in the amount of 64.8% (20 million pounds in rye units), although "scissors" so far they have no tendency to narrow.

There is no political banditry in the province, there are also no strikes (once the Poltava cab drivers went on strike for 7 days, so this even benefited the Gubkommunkhoz, which transported passengers from the station with its means of transportation and thereby struggled with excesses).

So in the rural Poltava region we are seeing a Soviet paradise, and in the proletarian Donbass they are already on strike according to plan and quite systematically.

There is something to ponder, comrade. Stalin.

We, the local workers, unfortunately, get the impression and even the conviction that in the leading central Party, Soviet and economic circles, if they think about these questions, they do not take decisive, cardinal measures.

Everyone is waiting for something, everyone is hoping that maybe the Bolshevik curve will take them out.

Try hard, comrade. Stalin, instruct reliable comrades to be in the midst of not only the workers, but, most importantly, the masses of the Party, but let these comrades not show that they are from the center.

Let them talk frankly with the rank and file about our shortcomings and shortcomings, and they will hear a lot, more than they should, of bitter communist truths.

I had a chance to talk with a responsible party worker of a large industrial center, and he, with great party pain, was forced to admit that sometimes he was overcome by doubt, overcome by pessimism, and involuntarily a mood was created that we were falling into some kind of dead end.

The Party organizations in the localities do not have sufficient firm confidence that the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission, in connection with the latest circular on excesses (by the way, very long-awaited and quite satisfactory), will lead a decisive and cardinal struggle against hundreds and thousands of unacceptable acts and outrages perpetrated by Party members.

How can one explain that despite a number of recent circulars from the Central Committee of our Party about a resolute struggle against all kinds of banquets, offerings, about the termination of the issuance of bonuses, etc., remnants of bourgeois-petty-bourgeois traditions, only a few days ago Narkomfin sent to his subordinates in the form of a gold watch award. (Head of the Gubfin Department and his assistant, of course, to the communists).

Everyone knows this and emphasizes the duality and contradiction of our practice, for we ourselves issue circulars about taking away precious items from the Communists.

In general, circulars (about the same content as the fight against excesses) are still used to be viewed most of all as a political act (we have developed too much politicking and politicking), a non-committal center, and vice versa - very obliging periphery.

Meanwhile, the main burden in the fight against excesses, of course, will have to be overcome in the center (Moscow, Petrograd, Kharkov, and other metropolitan areas).

After the Twelfth Party Congress it was perfectly clear to us that the absence of Ilyich imposed on us an enormous collective responsibility.

We perfectly understood that there was no one to replace Ilyich personally.

But, unfortunately, we were not sufficiently and to a certain extent certain that an ideological and militant unity would be created in the Central Committee.

That is why we have attached and continue to attach actual importance to the question of the maximum unity of Party members.

First of all, it is necessary to seriously and for a long time raise the question of the indispensable practical implementation of inner-Party workers' democracy.

The mass of the party, the middle peasants of the party, has grown noticeably, matured, stands firmly on the Bolshevik positions and urgently demands confidence in itself from the leaders of the mass of the party, including from the members of the Central Committee.

What is needed is correct, timely, well in advance, undisguised information about everything that is being done in the Central Committee. It is possible less often, and only in the most exceptional cases, to resort to measures of an administrative nature and perhaps less often to resort to the use of administrative diligence.

It is necessary to avoid cases of cancellation by one person (no matter what high post and rank he occupies) of the decision of an elected body.

It is very useful that members of the Central Committee often travel to places and, especially, the presence of the latter at party conferences and plenums of the Gubernia Committee.

It is necessary to carry out firmly and resolutely (again in the Leninist way) the practical measures outlined in the circular on excesses.

It is necessary to categorically forbid all heads of departments to bring any precious gifts (Acceptable gift, in our opinion, is a good book that is already being used locally).

Tov. Stalin, if I decided to take your time, it is only because I am deeply convinced that, with the courage inherent in us Bolsheviks (we, Lenin's disciples), if we only delve deeper into the interests of the working class and the peasantry, we will create within ourselves atmosphere of mutual trust - we will certainly succeed this time as well in getting out of a very difficult situation with honor.

It goes without saying that there can be no question of any pessimism.

The sixth anniversary of October has shown what enormous strength and hope we can draw from the working class and the peasantry, and what selfless confidence the Communist Party enjoys among the working masses.

Waiting for your answer with communist greetings.

Secretary of the Poltava Provincial Committee: B. Magidov.

Poltava

November 10th. G.

RTSKHIDNI. F. 558. On. 1. D. 2565. L. 2-7. Typewritten text. The signature is an autograph.

Notes:

1 The report of the secretary of the Poltava provincial committee of the CP(b) U Magidov was considered by the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) on October 8, 1923 (RTsKhIDNI. F. 17. Op. 112. D. 486. L. 1).

2 Circular of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission on "Struggle against excesses and against the criminal use of official position by party members" (Ibid. D. 561. L. 56-56v.).