Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU)
The CPSU was founded by V. I. Lenin as a revolutionary Marxist party of the Russian proletariat; remaining the party of the working class, the CPSU, as a result of the victory of socialism in the USSR and the strengthening of the social and ideological and political unity of Soviet society, became the party of all Soviet people. "The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is the battle-tested vanguard of the Soviet people, uniting on a voluntary basis the advanced, most conscious part of the working class, the collective farm peasantry and the intelligentsia of the USSR..." The Party exists for the people and serves the people. It is the highest form of socio-political organization, the leading and guiding force of Soviet society ... The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is an integral, integral part of the international communist and workers' movement ”(Charter of the CPSU, 1976, p. 3, 4, 6). From 1898 (1st congress) it was called the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party - RSDLP, from 1917 - the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks) - RSDLP (b). In March 1918, at the 7th congress, it was renamed the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - RCP (b); motivating the renaming of the party to the Communist, V. I. Lenin y. in his report at the congress, he pointed out: “... Starting socialist transformations, we must clearly set before ourselves the goal towards which these transformations are ultimately directed, precisely the goal of creating a communist society ...” (Poln. sobr. op. , 5th ed., vol. 36, p. 44). In connection with the formation of the USSR, the 14th Party Congress (1925) renamed the RCP(b) into the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - VKP(b). The 19th Party Congress (1952) renamed the CPSU (b) into the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), the CPSU absorbed the revolutionary traditions of the entire previous liberation democratic movement in Russia and around the world, managed to combine the protection of the class and interests of the proletariat with the aspirations of all in the working people and the exploited, to combine the struggle of the workers and peasants against the social oppression of the capitalists and landlords with the struggle of the enslaved peoples and nationalities against the national yoke, to turn the Russian working class into the vanguard of the international working-class movement. The working class, led by the Bolshevik Party, in alliance with the poorest peasantry, carried out the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917, establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat. The CPSU is the first Marxist party in the world to lead the proletariat to political dominance and to realize the idea of creating a socialist state.
The CPSU is the heroic party for the defense of the Socialist Fatherland, which organized the victory of the Soviet people over their worst enemies- interventionists and internal counter-revolution in the Civil War of 1918-20, over Hitler's fascism, Japanese militarism and their allies in the Great Fatherland. war 1941-45. and The result of the selfless struggle of the Soviet people under the leadership of the CPSU is the transformation of the Soviet Union into a powerful industrial and collective farm power, a country of advanced science and culture, and the building of a developed socialist society. (The Leninist policy and practice of the CPSU ensured the monolithic cohesion of the Soviet people around the party. During the years of socialist construction in the USSR, a new historical community of people arose - the Soviet people, strong with unity of goals and unity of action in the struggle for the triumph of communism.
For more information about the history of the CPSU, see Art. Communist Party of the Soviet Union, in sections on communist parties in articles on union republics.
The CPSU is the party of scientific communism. Theoretical basis CPSU is Marxism-Leninism - scientific foundation for the revolutionary transformation of society. Guided by the Marxist-Leninist doctrine, creatively developing and enriching it, the CPSU at each historical stage defined immediate and long-term tasks in its programs, but the ultimate goal of the party remained constant and unchanged: the building of communism.
The 2nd Congress of the RSDLP (1903) created the Marxist Bolshevik Party. “Bolshevism,” wrote Lenin, “has existed as a current of political thought and as a political party since 1903” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 41, p. 6). The congress adopted the first Program of the Party - a program for the conquest of political power by the working class, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat. This program was carried out with the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution and the formation of the Republic of Soviets. The 8th Congress of the RCP(b) in 1919 adopted the second Party Program - the program for building socialism. Its implementation was crowned with the complete and final victory of socialism in the USSR. The 22nd Congress of the CPSU (1961) adopted the third Program - the program for building a communist society in the USSR. This program formulated as a triune task - the creation of the material and technical base of communism, the formation of communist social relations and the education of a new person. The creation of the material and technical base of communism means: the complete electrification of the country and the improvement on this basis of technique, technology and the organization of social production in all branches of the national economy; complex mechanization of production. processes, their increasingly complete automation; widespread use of chemistry in the national economy; all-round development of new, economically efficient branches of production, new types of energy and materials; comprehensive and rational use of natural, material and labor resources; the organic combination of science with production and the rapid pace of scientific and technological progress; high cultural and technical level of the working people; significant superiority over the most developed capitalist countries in terms of labor productivity, which is the most important condition for the victory of the communist system. “As a result,” the Program of the CPSU points out, “the USSR will have productive forces unprecedented in its power, it will exceed the technical level of the most developed countries and take first place in the world in per capita output. This will serve as the basis for the gradual transformation of socialist social relations into communist ones, such a development of production that will make it possible to satisfy in abundance the needs of society and all its citizens ”(Programma KPSS, 1976, pp. 66-67). “The CPSU sets a task of world-historic significance - to ensure in the Soviet Union the highest standard of living in comparison with any country of capitalism” (ibid., p. 90-91). The program of the CPSU proceeds from the fact that during the period of transition to communism, the possibilities for educating a new person who harmoniously combines communist ideology, spiritual wealth, moral purity and physical perfection increase.
V. I. Lenin developed the main directions of the political, ideological and organizational activity of the party, its strategy and tactics at various stages of the class struggle and revolutionary battles. In the party, Lenin saw the decisive condition for building socialism and communism. Based on the ideas of K. Marx and F. Engels on the proletarian party, critically generalizing the experience of the Russian and international revolutionary movement, Lenin created a coherent doctrine of the party, as highest form revolutionary organization of the working class. In 1904, Lenin wrote: “The proletariat has no other weapon in the struggle for power than organization ... The proletariat can become and will inevitably become an invincible force only because its ideological unification by the principles of Marxism is reinforced by the material unity of an organization that rallies millions of working people into a workers’ army. class. Neither the decrepit power of the Russian autocracy, nor the decrepit power of international capital will resist this army” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 8, pp. 403-04). Lenin created a proletarian party of a new type, which for the first time combined scientific socialism with a mass labor movement. In contrast to the social democratic parties of the West - the parties of social reforms and parliamentary methods, which denied the need for a socialist revolution and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the parties of the 2nd International with their organizational impotence, Lenin created a militant centralized political party of revolutionary action, irreconcilable to the bourgeoisie, closely connected with by the masses, capable of preparing the proletariat for the conquest of power, a party armed with revolutionary theory. “... The role of an advanced fighter,” Lenin pointed out, “can be performed only by a party led by an advanced theory” (ibid., vol. 6, p. 25).
Lenin led the party through severe trials and cruel persecution. “We are walking in a tight group along a steep and difficult path, firmly holding hands,” wrote Lenin. - We are surrounded on all sides by enemies, and we almost always have to go under their fire. We connected, by loose decision, precisely in order to fight enemies ... ”(ibid., p. 9). In this struggle the party gained strength and became the leader of the Russian proletariat.
After the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution, the Communist Party becomes the only political party in the country that enjoys the absolute trust and support of the working masses. The petty-bourgeois parties (Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, and others) exposed themselves as anti-proletarian, anti-people. The policy of conciliation led them to betray the interests of the working class and all working people; in the end they slipped into the camp of the counter-revolution. The CPSU became the ruling party. Lenin in 1918 pointed out: “We, the Bolshevik Party, convinced Russia. We won back Russia - from the rich for the poor, from the exploiters for the working people. We must now govern Russia” (ibid., vol. 36, p. 172). Lenin taught: “In order to govern, one must have an army of seasoned communist revolutionaries, it exists, it is called a party” (ibid., vol. 42, p. 254).
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is the leading and guiding force of Soviet society, the core of its political system, of all state and public organizations: Soviets, trade unions, the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union, creative unions, cultural, scientific and technical public, sports and defense organizations, etc. .d.
Armed with the Marxist-Leninist doctrine, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union determines the general perspective of the development of society, the line of internal and foreign policy Union of the SSR, directs the great creative activity of the Soviet people, imparts a systematic, scientifically substantiated character to their struggle for the victory of communism. “Not a single important political or organizational question,” Lenin pointed out, “is resolved by any government agency in our republic without the guidance of the Party Central” (ibid., vol. 41, pp. 30-31).
The CPSU, guided by the decisions of party congresses, determines the course of the country's socio-economic development, the direction of current and long-term national economic plans approved by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. The party ensures the solution of the main task of its domestic policy - raising the standard of living of the people, that means. improvement in the material well-being of the working people. The Party seeks to increase the efficiency of socialist production, to organically combine the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution with the advantages of the socialist economic system. The Party is doing a lot of work to strengthen state bodies and public organizations with politically trained personnel. The leadership of the Soviets, economic bodies, trade unions, Komsomol and other public organizations is carried out by the Party through the Communists working in these organizations, not allowing the functions of the Party and other bodies to be confused. The Party not only issues guiding directives and directives, but also checks their implementation.
The CPSU is a militant union of like-minded communists. Creatively developing Marxist-Leninist teaching, enriching it with new conclusions from the experience of socialist and communist construction in the USSR and foreign socialist countries, the world communist and working-class movement, the party is irreconcilable to any manifestations of revisionism and dogmatism, deeply alien to revolutionary theory.
With the establishment Soviet power in 1917, having become the ruling party in the Soviet state, the CPSU had to fight various kinds of anti-Leninist currents and deviations within the party - Trotskyists, right-wing opportunists, national deviationists, who, with their shyness from preaching " revolutionary war with the world bourgeoisie” to capitulatory statements about the impossibility of building socialism in one country in a situation of capitalist encirclement distracted the party from solving urgent political and economic tasks. Without the defeat of these currents it was impossible to carry on socialist construction in the USSR.
The CPSU holds high the Marxist-Leninist banner in the struggle against right-wing revisionism and petty-bourgeois revolutionism in the world communist movement. Consistently upholding the policy of peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems, the CPSU is irreconcilable in its struggle against bourgeois ideology. It resolutely opposes anti-communism, the main ideological and political weapon of imperialism.
The Communist Party is the ideological educator of the people. It educates the masses of working people in the spirit of communist consciousness, conducts daily propaganda and agitation activities, directs the means mass media(print, television, radio, etc.). The Party strives for every communist to observe and inculcate in the working people the communist moral principles set forth in the Program and Rules of the CPSU.
In terms of its ideology, type of structure, and nature of its activity, the CPSU is a consistently internationalist party. The Communist Party was created as a single party of the proletariat of all multinational Russia. The Party unites in its ranks representatives of all nations and nationalities of the USSR. Proletarian internationalism is the basis of Lenin's national program party, which was embodied in the rapid growth of the economy and the flourishing of the culture of all Soviet republics, in the creation and growth of a single multinational socialist state - the USSR, which became a bulwark of friendship and brotherhood of the Soviet peoples. Internationalism is one of the fundamental principles of the Leninist foreign policy of the CPSU and the Soviet state - a policy of actively defending peace and strengthening international security, ensuring favorable external conditions for building communism in the USSR, for protecting socialism and the freedom of peoples. The CPSU is consistently pursuing a policy of uniting and developing the world socialist system, strengthening friendship with the fraternal countries of socialism, unity and international solidarity with the workers' movement in capital countries, supporting peoples fighting for national and social liberation, for genuine political and economic independence, against imperialism and neo-colonialism. .
The organizational foundations of the CPSU are embodied in the Charter of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. He defines the norms of the parties. life, methods and forms of parties. construction, leadership of the party in all spheres of state, economic, ideological, social activity. According to the Charter, the guiding principle of the organizational structure of the party is democratic centralism, which means: the election of all the leading bodies of the party from top to bottom; periodic reporting of party bodies to their party organizations and to higher bodies; strict party discipline and the subordination of the minority to the majority; unconditional binding of decisions of higher bodies for lower ones. Criticism and self-criticism develop on the basis of inner-Party democracy, and Party discipline is strengthened. Any manifestation of factionalism is incompatible with Marxist-Leninist partisanship. The highest principle of the Party leadership is its collectivity - an indispensable condition for the normal activity of Party organizations, the correct education of cadres, the development of the activity and initiative of the Communists.
Any citizen of the Soviet Union who recognizes the Program and Rules of the Party, actively participates in building communism, works in one of the Party organizations, carries out the decisions of the Party and pays membership dues, can be a member of the CPSU. A member of the CPSU is obliged to serve as an example of a communist attitude to work and the fulfillment of social duty, firmly and unswervingly implement the decisions of the party, explain its policy to the masses, actively participate in the political life of the country, in the management of state affairs, in economic and cultural development, master the Marxist-Leninist theory, to wage a resolute struggle against any manifestations of bourgeois ideology, against the remnants of private property psychology, religious prejudices and other remnants of the past, to observe the principles of communist morality, to show sensitivity and attention to people, to be an active conductor of the ideas of socialist internationalism and Soviet patriotism among the masses of working people, to strengthen in every possible way the unity of the Party, to be truthful and honest with the Party and the people, to develop criticism and self-criticism, to observe the Party. and state discipline, equally obligatory for all members of the party, to exercise vigilance, to contribute in every possible way to strengthening the defense might of the USSR.
A party member has the right to elect and be elected to party bodies, freely discuss at party meetings, conferences, congresses, at meetings of party committees and in the party press issues of policy and practical activities of the party, make proposals, openly express and defend his opinion until the organization makes a decision ; to criticize at party meetings, conferences, congresses, plenums of the committee of any communist, regardless of his post.
Admission to the CPSU is carried out exclusively on an individual basis. Conscious, active and devoted to the cause of communism workers, peasants and representatives of the intelligentsia are accepted as members of the Party. Those who join the party undergo a candidate's experience (for a period of 1 year). The party accepts persons who have reached the age of 18. Young people up to 23 years old inclusive join the party only through the Komsomol.
For non-fulfillment of statutory duties and other misconduct, a party member or candidate member is held liable, and penalties may be imposed on him. The highest measure of party punishment is expulsion from the party.
The CPSU is built according to the territorial production principle: the primary organizations of the party are created at the place of work of the communists and are united into district, city, etc. organizations across the territory. The highest governing bodies of party organizations are the general meeting (for primary organizations), the conference (for district, city, district, regional, territorial organizations), the congress (for the communist parties of the union republics, for the CPSU). The general meeting, conference or congress elects a bureau or committee, which is the executive body and directs all the current work of the party organizations. Elections of party bodies are held by closed (secret) voting.
The Party Congress is the supreme body of the CPSU. The Congress elects the Central Committee (CC) and the Central Audit Commission. Regular congresses are convened at least once every 5 years. In the intervals between congresses, the Central Committee of the CPSU directs all the activities of the party. The Central Committee of the CPSU elects: to guide the work of the party between the Plenums of the Central Committee - the Politburo; to manage the current work, mainly on the selection of personnel and the organization of verification of performance, - the Secretariat. The Central Committee elects the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. The Central Committee of the CPSU organizes a Party Control Committee under the Central Committee.
Local party organizations, which are integral parts of the single CPSU, cover the entire territory of the USSR. Within their territorial boundaries, they carry out the policy of the party, organize and carry out the implementation of the directives of its highest bodies.
The basis of the party - the primary organizations. They are created at the place of work of Party members - at factories, factories, state farms and other enterprises, on collective farms, units Soviet army, institutions, educational institutions, etc. with at least 3 party members. Territorial primary party organizations are also being created at the place of residence of the communists: in rural areas and at house administrations. The primary party organization admits new members to the CPSU, educates communists in the spirit of devotion to the cause of the party, ideological conviction, and communist morality, organizes the study of Marxist-Leninist theory by communists, and conducts mass agitation and propaganda work. The primary Party organization is concerned with enhancing the vanguard role of the Communists in labor, socio-political and economic life, acts as an organizer of the working people in solving the immediate tasks of communist construction, leads socialist emulation, strives to strengthen labor discipline, steadily increase labor productivity, improve the quality of products, on the basis of a broad development of criticism and self-criticism is fighting against manifestations of bureaucracy, parochialism, violations of state discipline and other shortcomings.
The exchange of party documents, carried out in the early 1970s, contributed to the activation of the communists and parties. organizations in the struggle to fulfill the tasks of communist construction, strengthening party discipline.
Primary party organizations of enterprises in industry, transport, communications, construction, logistics, trade, public catering, public utilities, collective farms, state farms and other agricultural enterprises, design organizations, design bureaus, research institutes, educational institutions, cultural -educational and medical institutions enjoy the right to control the activities of the administration. Party organizations of ministries, state committees and other central and local Soviet, economic institutions and departments exercise control over the work of the apparatus in fulfilling the directives of the party and government, and observing Soviet laws. They are called upon to actively influence the improvement of the work of the apparatus, educate employees in the spirit of high responsibility for the assigned work, take measures to strengthen state discipline, improve public services, wage a resolute fight against bureaucracy and red tape, promptly report shortcomings in the work of institutions to the relevant Party bodies, as well as individual employees, regardless of their positions. Party work in the Armed Forces is directed by the Central Committee of the CPSU through the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy, which operates as a department of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
Under the leadership of the CPSU All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union (VLKSM) - an active assistant and reserve of the party.
As of January 1, 1977, there were 15,994,476 Communists in the CPSU (15,365,600 members of the CPSU and 628,876 candidate members of the CPSU). They united in 14 communist parties of the union republics, 6 regional, 148 regional, 10 district, 822 city, 576 district in cities, 2851 rural district, 394 thousand primary party organizations.
In the system of party education in 1976/77 account. about 20 million people studied, leading party and Soviet cadres - at the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the CPSU, the correspondence Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the CPSU. There were also 13 republican and interregional higher party schools, 20 Soviet party schools.
The research center is the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU, which has its branches in the Union republics.
The funds of the Party and its organizations are made up of membership dues, income from the enterprises of the Party and other receipts.
The CPSU conducts extensive publishing activities. The organ of the Central Committee of the CPSU is the newspaper Pravda (since 1912). Newspapers of the Central Committee of the CPSU: "Soviet Russia" (since 1956), "Socialist Industry" (since 1969), " rural life"(since 1929), "Soviet Culture" (since 1953), Weekly of the Central Committee of the CPSU - "Economic Newspaper" (since 1918). Theoretical and political journal of the Central Committee of the CPSU - Kommunist (since 1924). Magazines of the Central Committee of the CPSU: "Agitator" (since 1923), "Party Life" (since 1919), "Political Self-Education" (since 1957). Under the jurisdiction of the Central Committee of the CPSU are: the publishing house Pravda, the Publishing House of Political Literature (Politizdat), the publishing house Plakat. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Union Republics also has its own publishing houses.
Congresses and conferences of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
(For more information about the 1st-24th Party Congresses, see the relevant articles of the TSB.)
1st Congress of the RSDLP. March 1-3 (13-15), 1898. Minsk. There were 9 delegates from 6 organizations: 1 delegate each from the "Unions of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class": Petersburg, Moscow, Yekaterinoslav, Kiev; 2 delegates from the Kiev Rabochaya Gazeta group and 3 delegates from the Bund. The Congress proclaimed the creation of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), elected the Central Committee of the party (3 people), instructed the Central Committee to issue the Manifesto on behalf of the party. As a result of the arrest of members of the Central Committee soon after the congress, the Central Committee could not expand its work and actually ceased to exist.
2nd Congress of the RSDLP. 17 (30) July - 10 (23) August 190Z. Brussels - London. There were 43 delegates with 51 casting votes and 14 deliberative ones. 26 organizations were represented [including organizations: Iskra, the Foreign League of Russian Revolutionary Social Democracy, the Emancipation of Labor group, the Foreign Union of Russian Social Democrats, the Central and Foreign Committees of the Bund, the Southern worker”, 14 local committees, 4 social democratic unions and the St. Petersburg workers’ organization (economist)]. The order of the day: 1) Constituting the congress. Bureau elections. Establishing the rules of the congress and the order of the day. Report of the Organizing Committee (OC) and the selection of a commission to determine the composition of the congress. 2) The place of the Bund in the RSDLP. 3) Party program. 4) The central organ of the party. 5) Delegate reports. 6) Party organization. 7) District and national organizations. 8) Separate groups of the party. 9) The national question. 10) Economic struggle and professional movement. 11) May 1st celebration. 12) International Socialist Congress in Amsterdam 1904. 13) Demonstrations and uprisings. 14) Terror. 15) Internal questions of party work: a) staging propaganda; b) staging agitation; c) staging parties. literature; d) organizing work among the peasantry; e) organization of work in the army; f) setting up work among students; g) organization of work among sectarians. 16) The attitude of the RSDLP towards the Social Revolutionaries. 17) The attitude of the RSDLP to the Russian liberal currents. 18) Elections of the Central Committee and editorial board of the Central Organ (CO) of the party. 19) Election of the Party Council. 20) The procedure for announcing the decisions and minutes of the congress, as well as the procedure for the entry into the administration of their duties by elected officials and institutions. Under item 6 of the order of the day - Organization of the Party - the question of the Charter of the Party was discussed.
3rd Congress of the RSDLP. April 12-27 (April 25 - May 10) 1905. London. There were 24 delegates with a decisive vote and 14 with an advisory vote. Order of the day: 1) Report of the Organizing Committee. 2) Tactical questions: armed uprising, attitude to government policy on the eve and at the time of the coup; relation to the peasant movement. 3) Organizational questions: relations between workers and intellectuals in party organizations; Party charter. 4) Attitude towards other parties and trends: attitude towards the breakaway part of the RSDLP; attitude towards national social-democratic organizations; attitude towards liberals; practical agreements with the socialist revolutionaries. 5) Internal questions of party life; propaganda and agitation. 6) Reports of delegates; Central Committee report; reports of delegates of local committees. 7) Elections; procedure for announcing resolutions and minutes of the congress and entry of officials into office.
Conference of Social Democratic Organizations in Russia. September 7-9 (20-22), 1905. Riga. The Central Committee of the RSDLP was convened to develop tactics in relation to the State Duma. There were representatives from the Central Committee, the Menshevik Organizing Commission (OK), the Bund, the Latvian Social Democracy, the Polish Social Democracy and the Revolutionary Ukrainian Party (RUP).
1st Conference of the RSDLP. 12-17 (25-30) December 1905. Tammerfors. 41 delegates attended. Order of the day: 1) Reports from the field. 2) Report on the current moment. 3) Organizational report of the Central Committee. 4) On the unification of both parts of the RSDLP. 5) On the reorganization of the party. 6) The agrarian question. 7) About the State Duma.
4th (Unifying) Congress of the RSDLP. April 10-25 (April 23-May 8), 1906. Stockholm. There were 112 delegates with a decisive vote from 57 local organizations of the RSDLP and 22 with an advisory vote; in addition, with an advisory vote, 3 delegates each from the Social Democracy of Poland and Lithuania, the Bund and Latysh, the Social Democratic Labor Party, 1 delegate each from the Ukrainian Social Democratic Labor Party and the Finnish Labor Party, a representative of the Bulgarian Social Democratic Labor Party, and also GV Plekhanov, P. Axelrod and others. Order of the day: 1) Revision of the agrarian program. 2) Current moment. 3) The question of tactics in relation to the results of the elections to the State Duma and to the Duma itself. 4) Armed uprising. 5) Partisan actions. 6) Provisional revolutionary government and revolutionary self-government. 7) Attitude towards the Soviets of Workers' Deputies. 8) Trade unions. 9) Attitude towards the peasant movement. 10) Attitude towards various non-social democratic parties and organizations. 11) Attitude to the requirement of a special Constituent. meeting for Poland in connection with the national question in the Party. Program. 12) Party organization. 13) Association with national social-democratic organizations (Social Democracy of Poland and Lithuania, Latvian Social Democracy, Bund). 14) Reports. 15) Elections.
2nd Conference of the RSDLP ("First All-Russian"). 3-7 (16-20) November 1906. Tammerfors. 32 delegates attended. Members of the Central Committee and the editorial board of the Central Organ (CO) were present with an advisory vote. The order of the day: 1) The election campaign. 2) Party congress. 3) Labor congress. 4) The fight against the black hundred and pogroms. 5) Partisan performances.
5th (London) Congress of the RSDLP. April 30 - May 19 (May 13 - June 1), 1907. London. There were 303 delegates with a decisive vote and 39 with an advisory vote. Among the delegates with a decisive vote there were 177 people. from the RSDLP (of which 89 were Bolsheviks), 45 from the SDKPiL, 26 from the SDLC and 55 from the Bund. Order of the day: 1) Report of the Central Committee. 2) Report of the Duma faction and its organization. 3) Attitude towards bourgeois parties. 4) State Duma. 5) Labor congress and non-party workers' organizations. 6) Trade unions and the party. 7) Partisan performances. 8) Unemployment, economic crisis and lockouts. 9) Organizational issues. 10) International congress in Stuttgart. 11) Work in the army. 12) Miscellaneous.
3rd Conference of the RSDLP ("Second All-Russian"). July 21-23 (August 3-5), 1907. Kotka (Finland). 26 delegates were present, including 9 Bolsheviks, 5 Mensheviks, 5 Polish Social Democrats, 5 Bundists and 2 Latvian Social Democrats. It was convened to discuss tactical issues in connection with the dispersal of the 2nd State Duma (the so-called Third-June coup) and the convocation of the 3rd Duma.
4th Conference of the RSDLP ("Third All-Russian"). 5-12 (18-25) November 1907. Helsingfors. 27 delegates were present, including 10 Bolsheviks, 4 Mensheviks, 5 Polish Social Democrats, 5 Bundists, 3 Letts, Social Democrats. On the order of the day were questions about the tactics of the Social Democratic faction in the State Duma, about factional centers and the strengthening of ties between the Central Committee and local organizations, and about participation in the bourgeois press.
5th Conference of the RSDLP (All-Russian 1908). December 21-27, 1908 (January 3-9, 1909). Paris. There were 16 delegates with a casting vote; 5 Bolsheviks, 3 Mensheviks, 5 Polish Social Democrats, 3 Bundists. Order of the day: 1) Reports from the Central Committee of the RSDLP, the Central Committee of the Polish Social Democracy, the Central Committee of the Bund, the St. Petersburg Organization, the Moscow and Central Industrial Regional, the Urals, and the Caucasus. 2) The current political situation and tasks of the party. 3) On the Duma Social Democratic faction. 4) Organizational issues in connection with the changed political conditions. 5) Consolidation in the field with national organizations. 6) Foreign affairs.
6th (Prague) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP. 5-17 (18-30) January 1912. Prague. More than 20 party organizations were represented - almost all active organizations in Russia, so it had the significance of a party congress. Representatives of the editorial board of the Central Organ, the editorial staff of Rabochaya Gazeta, the Committee for Foreign Organizations, etc., were present in a consultative voice. Order of the day: 1) Reports (report of the Russian Organizing Commission, reports from the field, report of the Central Organ, etc.). 2) Constituting the conference. 3) The present moment and the tasks of the Party. 4) Elections to the 4th State Duma. 5) Duma faction. 6) State insurance of workers. 7) The strike movement and trade unions (this item on the order of the day was subsequently combined with the item "Organizational questions" and a general resolution was passed on them - "On the nature and organizational forms of party work"). 8) "Petition Campaign". 9) On liquidationism. 10) The tasks of the Social Democrats in the fight against hunger. 11) Party literature. 12) Organizational issues. 13) Party work abroad. 14) Elections. 15) Miscellaneous.
Conference of Foreign Sections of the RSDLP. February 14-19 (February 27 - March 4), 1915. Bern. There were representatives from the Central Committee and the Central Organ, from the women's social democratic organization, from sections: Paris, Zurich, Bern, Lausanne, Geneva, London, from the God's group, etc. Order of the day: 1) Reports from the field. 2) War and tasks of the party (relation to other political groups). 3) Tasks of foreign organizations (relation to general actions and enterprises of various groups). 4) Central Organ and a new newspaper. 5) Attitude towards "colonial" affairs (questions of emigrant "colonies"). 6) Elections of the Committee of Foreign Organizations. 7) Miscellaneous.
7th (April) All-Russian Conference of the RSDLP(b). April 24-29 (May 7-12), 1917. Petrograd. There were 133 delegates with a decisive vote and 18 with an advisory vote, representing 80 thousand members of the party. The order of the day: 1) The current moment (war and the Provisional Government, etc.). 2) Peace Conference. 3) Attitude towards the Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies. 4) Revision of the party program. 5) The situation in the International and our tasks. 6) Association of social-democratic internationalist organizations. 7) The agrarian question. 8) The national question. 9) Constituent Assembly. 10) Organizational issue. 11) Reports by regions. 12) Elections of the Central Committee.
6th Congress of the RSDLP(b). July 26 - August 3 (August 8-16), 1917. Petrograd. There were 157 delegates with a decisive vote and 110 with an advisory vote, representing about 240 thousand members of the party. Order of the day: 1) Report of the Organizational Bureau. 2) Report of the Central Committee of the RSDLP(b). 3) Reports from the field. 4) Current moment: a) war and international situation; b) political and economic situation. 5) Revision of the program. 6) Organizational issues. 7) Elections to the Constituent Assembly. 8) International. 9) Unification of the party. 10) Professional movement. 11) Elections. 12) Miscellaneous. A resolution "On Youth Unions" was also adopted. In addition, the report on V. I. Lenin's failure to appear at the trial of the bourgeois Provisional Government was discussed.
7th Congress of the RCP(b). March 6-8, 1918. Petrograd. Convened as an emergency to resolve the issue of the withdrawal of Soviet Russia from the imperialist war. There were 47 delegates with a decisive vote and 59 with an advisory one. Order of the day: 1) Report of the Central Committee. 2) The question of war and peace. 3) Revision of the Program and the name of the party. 4) Organizational issues. 5) Elections of the Central Committee.
8th Congress of the RCP(b). March 18-23, 1919. Moscow. There were 301 voting delegates, representing 313,766 party members, and 102 with an advisory vote. Order of the day: 1) Report of the Central Committee. 2) The program of the RCP(b). 3) Creation of the Communist International. 4) Martial law and military policy. 5) Work in the village. 6) Organizational issues. 7) Elections of the Central Committee.
8th All-Russian Conference of the RCP(b) December 2-4, 1919. Moscow. There were 45 delegates with a decisive vote and 73 with an advisory one. Order of the day: 1) Political and organizational report of the Central Committee. 2) International position. 3) Issues on the order of the day of the 7th All-Russian Congress of Soviets. 4) About Soviet power in Ukraine. 5) Party charter. 6) On work among the new members of the Party who have entered the Party week. 7) About the fuel crisis.
9th Congress of the RCP(b). March 29 - April 5, 1920. Moscow. There were 554 voting delegates representing 611,978 party members and 162 with an advisory vote. Order of the day: 1) Report of the Central Committee. 2) Immediate tasks of economic development. 3) Professional movement. 4) Tasks of the Communist International. 5) Organizational issues. 6) Attitude towards cooperation. 7) Transition to the militia system. 8) Elections of the Central Committee.
9th All-Russian Conference of the RCP(b). September 22-25, 1920. Moscow. There were 116 delegates with a decisive vote and 125 with an advisory one. Order of the day: 1) Report by the representative of the Polish communists. 2) Political report of the Central Committee. 3) Organizational report of the Central Committee. 4) On the immediate tasks of party building. 5) Report on the 2nd Congress of the Comintern.
10th Congress of the RCP(b). March 8-16, 1921. Moscow. There were 694 voting delegates representing 732,521 party members and 296 deliberative delegates. Order of the day: 1) Political and organizational report of the Central Committee and report of the Central Control Commission (CCC). 2) About Glavpolitprosvet and agitation and propaganda work of the party. 3) The national question. 4) Trade unions and their role in the economic life of the country. 5) Questions of party building. 6) On replacing the apportionment with a food tax. 7) Soviet Russia in a capitalist environment. 8) Report of the representatives of the RCP(b) in the Comintern. 9) Questions about the unity of the party and the anarcho-syndicalist deviation. 10) Election of governing bodies.
10th All-Russian Conference of the RCP(b). May 26-28, 1921. Moscow. 239 delegates attended. Order of the day: 1) Economic policy: a) food tax; b) cooperation; c) about financial reform; d) small industry. 2) The role of the Socialist-Revolutionaries and Mensheviks at the present moment. 3) 3rd Congress of the Communist International. In addition, the conference heard information reports on the work of the Communist faction of the 4th Congress of Trade Unions and on the immediate tasks of the organizational work of the Party.
11th All-Russian Conference of the RCP(b). December 19-22, 1921. Moscow. There were 125 delegates with a decisive vote and 116 with an advisory one. Order of the day: 1) The immediate tasks of the Party in connection with the restoration of the economy. 2) industry. 3) agriculture. 4) Cooperation. 5) Preliminary results of the purge of the party. 6) Questions of the Communist International.
11th Congress of the RCP(b). March 27 - April 2, 1922. Moscow. There were 522 voting delegates, representing 532,000 party members, and 165 with an advisory vote. Order of the day: 1) Political report of the Central Committee. 2) Organizational report of the Central Committee. 3) Report of the Audit Commission. 4) Report of the Central Control Commission. 5) Report of the RCP(b) delegation to the Comintern. 6) Trade unions. 7) About the Red Army. 8) Financial policy. 9) The results of the purge of the party and the strengthening of its ranks; co-reports: on work among the youth, on the press and propaganda. 10) Elections of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission.
12th All-Russian Conference of the RCP(b). August 4-7, 1922. Moscow. There were 129 delegates with a decisive vote and 92 with an advisory one. The order of the day: 1) On the international situation. 2) About trade unions. 3) Party work in cooperation. 4) On anti-Soviet parties and trends. 5) On the work of the statutory section. 6) On improving the financial situation of party members. 7) On the 4th Congress of the Communist International.
12th Congress of the RCP(b). 17-25 April 192Z. Moscow. There were 408 delegates with a decisive vote representing 386,000 party members, and 417 with an advisory vote. The order of the day: 1) Report of the Central Committee: a) political report of the Central Committee and b) organizational report of the Central Committee. 2) Report of the Audit Commission. 3) Report of the Central Control Commission. 4) Report of the Russian representation in the Executive Committee of the Comintern. 5) About industry. 6) National moments in party and state building. 7) Tax policy in the village. 8) About zoning. 9) Election of central institutions.
13th Conference of the RCP(b). January 16-18, 1924. Moscow. There were 128 delegates with a decisive vote and 222 with an advisory one. Order of the day: 1) Immediate tasks of economic policy. 2) Questions of party building. 3) International position. In addition, the conference adopted resolutions: 1) On the results of the discussion and on the petty-bourgeois deviation in the Party, and 2) Greetings from the Central Organ to Pravda.
13th Congress of the RCP(b). May 23-31, 1924. Moscow. There were 748 voting delegates, representing 735,881 party members and candidate members, and 416 with an advisory vote. Order of the day: 1) On granting candidates for members of the RCP the right to vote in elections to the 13th Congress of the RCP. 2) Political report of the Central Committee. 3) Organizational report of the Central Committee. 4) Report of the Central Audit Commission. 5) Report of the Central Control Commission. 6) Report of the representation of the RCP in the Executive Committee of the Comintern. 7) Oh domestic trade and cooperation: a) on trade turnover and planned work, b) on cooperation. 8) About work in the village. 9) About party-organizational questions. 10) About work among the youth. 11) Report on the manuscripts of K. Marx and F. Engels. 12) Report on the work of the Lenin Institute. 13) Elections of the central institutions of the party.
14th Conference of the RCP(b). April 27-29, 1925. Moscow. There were 178 delegates with a decisive vote and 392 with an advisory one. The order of the day: 1) Party and organizational issues. 2) About cooperation. 3) About the agricultural tax. 4) About the metal industry. 5) On the expanded plenum of the ECCI. 6) About revolutionary legality.
14th Congress of the CPSU (b). December 18-31, 1925. Moscow. There were 665 voting and 641 deliberative delegates, representing 643,000 party members and 445,000 candidates. Order of the day: 1) Political report of the Central Committee. 2) Organizational report of the Central Committee. 3) Report of the Central Audit Commission. 4) Report of the Central Control Commission. 5) Report of the representation of the RCP(b) in the Executive Committee of the Comintern. 6) The next questions of economic construction. 7) On the work of trade unions. 8) About the work of the Komsomol. 9) On changing the Party Rules. 10) Elections to the central institutions of the party.
15th Conference of the CPSU(b). October 26 - November 3, 1926. Moscow. There were 194 voting delegates and 640 deliberative delegates. The order of the day: 1) On the international situation. 2) On the economic situation of the country and the tasks of the Party. 3) The results of the work and the immediate tasks of the trade unions. 4) About the opposition and the inner-party situation.
15th Congress of the CPSU (b). December 2-19, 1927. Moscow. There were 898 voting and 771 deliberative delegates, representing 887,233 party members and 348,957 candidates. Order of the day: 1) Report of the Central Committee. 2) Report of the Central Audit Commission. 3) Report of the Central Control Commission - RCT. 4) Report of the delegation of the CPSU (b) in the Comintern. 5) Directives for drawing up a 5-year plan for the development of the national economy. 6) About work in the countryside. 7) Election of central institutions.
16th Conference of the CPSU(b). April 23-29, 1929. Moscow. There were 254 voting delegates and 679 deliberative delegates. Order of the day: 1) Five-year plan for the development of the national economy. 2) Ways of lifting Agriculture and tax relief for the middle peasant. 3) Results and immediate tasks of the fight against bureaucracy. 4) On the purge and verification of members and candidates of the AUCP(b). In addition, an information report on the April joint plenum of the Central Committee and Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was heard.
16th Congress of the CPSU (b). June 26 - July 13, 1930. Moscow. There were 1,268 voting and 891 non-voting delegates representing 1,260,874 party members and 711,609 candidates. Order of the day: 1) Political report of the Central Committee. 2) Organizational report of the Central Committee. 3) Report of the Central Audit Commission. 4) Report of the Central Control Commission. 5) Report of the delegation of the CPSU(b) to the ECCI. 6) Fulfillment of the five-year plan for industry. 7) The collective-farm movement and the rise of agriculture. 8) Tasks of trade unions in the period of reconstruction. 9) Elections of the central institutions of the party.
17th Conference of the CPSU(b). January 30 - February 4, 1932. Moscow. There were 386 delegates with a decisive vote and 525 with an advisory one. Order of the day: 1) Results of the development of industry for 1931 and tasks for 1932. 2) Directives for the preparation of the 2nd five-year plan for the national economy of the USSR for 1933-37.
17th Congress of the CPSU (b). January 26 - February 10, 1934. Moscow. There were 1,225 voting and 736 deliberative delegates, representing 1,872,488 party members and 935,298 candidates. Order of the day: 1) Reports of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the Central Audit Commission of the Central Control Commission - RCT, the delegation of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the ECCI. 2) The plan of the 2nd five-year plan. 3) Organizational issues (party and Soviet building). 4) Elections of the central bodies of the party.
18th Congress of the CPSU (b). March 10-21, 1939. Moscow. There were 1,569 voting and 466 deliberative delegates, representing 1,588,852 party members and 888,814 candidates. Order of the day: 1) Reporting reports: Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Central Auditing Commission, delegation of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks to the ECCI. 2) The third five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR for 1938-42. 3) Changes in the Charter of the AUCP(b). 4) Elections of the Commission for changing the Program of the AUCP(b). 5) Elections of the central bodies of the party.
18th Conference of the CPSU(b). February 15-20, 1941. Moscow. There were 456 delegates with a decisive vote and 138 with an advisory one. The order of the day: 1) On the tasks of the desks. organizations in the field of industry and transport. 2) The economic results of 1940 and the plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR for 1941. 3) Organizational questions.
19th Congress of the CPSU. October 5-14, 1952. Moscow. There were 1,192 voting and 167 deliberative delegates representing 6,013,259 party members and 868,886 candidates. Order of the day: 1) Report of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. 2) Report of the Central Auditing Commission of the AUCP(b). 3) Directives of the 19th Party Congress on the 5th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the National Economy of the USSR for 1951-55. 4) Changes in the Charter of the AUCP(b). 5) Elections of the central bodies of the party.
20th Congress of the CPSU. February 14-25, 1956. Moscow. There were 1,349 voting and 81 deliberative delegates representing 7,215,505 party members and candidates. Order of the day: 1) Report of the Central Committee of the CPSU. 2) Report of the Central Audit Commission of the CPSU. 3) Directives of the 20th Congress of the CPSU on the 6th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the National Economy of the USSR for 1956-1960. 4) Elections of the central bodies of the party. In addition, at a closed session, the congress heard a report "On the cult of personality and its consequences" and adopted a resolution on this report.
21st Extraordinary Congress of the CPSU. January 27 - February 5, 1959. Moscow. There were 1,261 voting and 106 deliberative delegates representing 8,239,131 party members and candidates. Order of the day: Control figures for the development of the national economy of the USSR for 1959-65.
22nd Congress of the CPSU. October 17-31, 1961. Moscow. There were 4,394 voting and 405 deliberative delegates representing 9,716,005 party members and candidates. Order of the day: 1) Report of the Central Committee of the CPSU. 2) Report of the Central Audit Commission of the CPSU. 3) Draft Program of the CPSU. 4) On changes in the Charter of the CPSU. 5) Elections of the central bodies of the party. In addition, the congress adopted a resolution "On the Mausoleum of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin."
23rd Congress of the CPSU. March 29 - April 8, 1966. Moscow. There were 4,619 voting and 323 deliberative delegates, representing 12,471,079 party members and candidates. Order of the day: 1) Report of the Central Committee of the CPSU. 2) Report of the Central Audit Commission. 3) Directives of the 23rd Congress of the CPSU on the five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR for 1966-70. 4) Elections of the central bodies of the party. In addition, the congress adopted a Statement on the US aggression in Vietnam.
24th Congress of the CPSU. March 30 - April 9, 1971. Moscow. 4740 delegates were elected with a decisive vote and 223 with an advisory vote, representing 13,810,089 party members and 645,232 candidates. Order of the day: 1) Report of the Central Committee of the CPSU. 2) Report of the Central Audit Commission. 3) Directives of the 24th Congress of the CPSU on the five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR for 1971-75. 4) Elections of the central bodies of the party.
25th Congress of the CPSU. February 24 - March 5, 1976. Moscow. The congress elected 4,998 delegates representing 15,058,017 party members. Order of the day: 1) Report of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the immediate tasks of the party in the field of domestic and foreign policy (speaker L. I. Brezhnev). 2) Report of the Central Audit Commission of the CPSU (speaker G. F. Sizov). 3) The main directions of development of the national economy of the USSR for 1976-80 (speaker A. N. Kosygin). 4) Elections of the central bodies of the party.
The composition of the congress delegates: by occupation - 1310 workers in industry, construction and transport; 887 agricultural workers (including over 70% - ordinary collective farmers and workers of state farms, team leaders, farm managers, foremen); 346 heads of production associations, combines, enterprises and construction sites, 86 directors of state farms, 142 collective farm chairmen; 1114 party workers (including 329 secretaries of regional committees, regional committees, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Union republics, 635 secretaries of district committees, city committees and district party committees); 693 Soviet, trade union and Komsomol workers; 272 figures of literature and art, employees of scientific institutions, public education and healthcare; 314 servicemen of the Armed Forces of the USSR; by age - up to 35 years old 12.5%, from 35 to 50 years old 58%, from 51 to 60 years old 19.7%, over 60 years old 9.8%; by education - almost 90% of delegates with higher, incomplete higher, secondary education; according to party experience - 7 delegates joined the party before the October Revolution, 381 - from November 1917 to 1941, 713 - in 1941-45, 3897 - in the post-war period, including 1132 delegates for 1966-76. Among the congress delegates there are 1255 women (25.1%); 1608 deputies of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Supreme Soviets of the Union and Autonomous Republics; 103 Academicians and Corresponding Members of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, branch Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Sciences of the Union Republics, 442 Doctors and Candidates of Sciences. About 98% of the delegates were awarded orders and medals, 67 delegates - Heroes of the Soviet Union, 797 - Heroes of Socialist Labor. 244 delegates are laureates of the Lenin Prize and the State Prize of the USSR, of which 31 are workers and collective farmers. Among the delegates are representatives of 60 nations and nationalities of the USSR.
| Members of the CPSU | Candidates for members of the CPSU | Total Communists |
|
*October.
| Total Communists | |
| Including: | |
| peasants (collective farmers) | |
| employees and others |
That., most communists are workers and collective farmers. Among the employees who are members of the Party, almost 3/4 is occupied by the intelligentsia - intellectual workers, specialists in various branches of knowledge.
There are 7,924,000 specialists with higher and secondary specialized education, i.e. 49.5% of the total number, including 22,598 doctors and 177,329 candidates of sciences. There were 3,947,616 women in the CPSU.
For the governing bodies of the CPSU, see the section Composition of the supreme governing bodies of the CPSU and the USSR .
Note. Many oblast and krai committees have departments for the most developed branches of industry in the oblast or krai (coal, oil, chemical, timber, and woodworking, etc.). In some regional committees and regional committees, instead of the industrial and transport department, there is a department of industry and a department of transport and communications, instead of a department of administrative and trade and financial bodies, there is a department of administrative bodies and a department of trade and financial bodies. A number of regional committees have departments for light, food industry and trade.
Note. Many urban and also some agricultural district committees have an industrial and transport department.
Note. A number of the Central Committees of the Communist Party of the Union republics have departments for the most developed branches of industry and agriculture in the republic (heavy industry, chemical industry, mechanical engineering, water management, and others). In some Central Committees, instead of a department for trade, financial and planning bodies, there is a department for trade and consumer services.
Great Soviet Encyclopedia M.: "Soviet Encyclopedia", 1969-1978
the victory of socialism in the USSR and the strengthening of the social and ideological and political unity of the Soviet people became the party of the entire Soviet people. “The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is the battle-tested vanguard of the Soviet people, uniting on a voluntary basis the advanced, most conscious part of the working class, the collective farm peasantry and the intelligentsia of the USSR... The Party exists for the people and serves the people. It is the highest form of socio-political organization, the leading and guiding force of Soviet society ... The Communist Party of the Soviet Union is an integral, integral part of the international communist and workers' movement ”(Charter of the CPSU, 1972, pp. 3, 4, 6). From 1898 (1st congress) it was called the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party - RSDLP, from 1917 - the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (Bolsheviks) - RSDLP (b). In March 1918, at the 7th congress, it was renamed the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - RCP (b); motivating the renaming of the party to the Communist Party, V. I. Lenin in his report at the congress pointed out: “... Starting socialist transformations, we must clearly set ourselves the goal towards which these transformations are ultimately aimed, namely the goal of creating a communist society. ..” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 36, p. 44). In connection with the formation of the USSR, the 14th Party Congress (1925) renamed the RCP (b) into the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - VKP (b). The 19th Party Congress (1952) renamed the CPSU (b) into the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU).The CPSU absorbed the revolutionary traditions of the entire previous democratic liberation movement in Russia, managed to combine the defense of the class interests of the proletariat with the aspirations of all working and exploited people, united the struggle of the workers and peasants against the social oppression of the capitalists and landowners with the struggle of the enslaved peoples and nationalities against the national yoke, transformed the Russian working class in the vanguard of the international labor movement. Led by the Bolshevik Party, the working class rallied all the working people around itself and carried out the Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917. The CPSU was the first Marxist party in the world to lead the proletariat to political dominance and to realize the idea of creating a socialist state. The CPSU is the heroic party for the defense of the Socialist Fatherland, which organized the victory of the Soviet people over their worst enemies - foreign interventionists and internal counter-revolution in the Civil War of 1918-1920, over Hitler's fascism, Japanese militarism and their allies in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45. The result of the selfless struggle of the Soviet people under the leadership of the CPSU is the building of a developed socialist society, the transformation of the Soviet Union into a powerful industrial and collective farm power, a country of advanced science and culture. The Leninist policy and practice of the CPSU ensured the solid solidarity of the Soviet people around the Party. During the years of socialist construction in the USSR, a new historical community of people arose - the Soviet people, strong in unity of purpose and unity of action in the struggle for the triumph of communism.
The CPSU is the party of scientific communism. The theoretical basis of the CPSU is Marxism-Leninism - scientific foundation for the revolutionary transformation of society. Guided by the Marxist-Leninist teaching, creatively developing and enriching it, the CPSU at every historical stage in its Programs (see . Program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ) determined the immediate and long-term tasks, but the ultimate goal of the party remained constant and unchanged: the building of communism. The First Program of the Party is a program for the conquest of political power by the working class, the establishment dictatorship of the proletariat - was adopted in 1903 at the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP, which created the Bolshevik Party. This program was carried out with the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution and the creation of the Republic of Soviets. The Eighth Congress of the RCP(b) in 1919 adopted the second Party Program - the program for building socialism. Its implementation was crowned with the triumph of the socialist system in the USSR. The 22nd Party Congress in 1961 adopted the third Program - a program for building a communist society in the USSR. This program formulated, as a triune task, the creation of the material and technical base of communism, the formation of communist social relations and the education of the new man. The creation of the material and technical base of communism means: the complete electrification of the country and the improvement on this basis of technique, technology and the organization of social production in all branches of the national economy; comprehensive mechanization of production processes, their ever more complete automation; widespread use of chemistry in the national economy; all-round development of new, economically efficient branches of production, new types of energy and materials; comprehensive and rational use of natural, material and labor resources; the organic combination of science with production and the rapid pace of scientific and technological progress; high cultural and technical level of the working people; significant superiority over the most developed capitalist countries in terms of labor productivity, which is the most important condition for the victory of the communist system. “As a result,” the Program of the CPSU points out, “the USSR will have productive forces unprecedented in its power, it will exceed the technical level of the most developed countries and take first place in the world in per capita output. This will serve as the basis for the gradual transformation of socialist social relations into communist ones, such a development of production that will make it possible to satisfy in abundance the needs of society and all its citizens” (1972, pp. 66-67). "The CPSU sets a task of world-historical significance - to ensure in the Soviet Union the highest standard of living in comparison with any country of capitalism" (ibid., pp. 90-91). The program of the CPSU proceeds from the fact that during the period of transition to communism, the possibilities for educating a new person who harmoniously combines spiritual wealth, moral purity and physical perfection increase.
V. And Lenin developed the main directions of the political, ideological and organizational activity of the party, its strategy and tactics at various stages of the class struggle, revolutionary battles. In the party, Lenin saw the decisive condition for building socialism and communism. Based on the ideas of K. Marx and F. Engels about the proletarian party, critically summarizing the experience of the Russian and international revolutionary movement, Lenin created a coherent doctrine of the party as the highest form of the revolutionary organization of the working class. In 1904, Lenin wrote: “The proletariat has no other weapon in its struggle for power than organization... The proletariat can become and will inevitably become an invincible force only because its ideological unification by the principles of Marxism is reinforced by the material unity of an organization that rallies millions of working people into the army of the working class. Neither the decrepit power of the Russian autocracy, nor the decrepit power of international capital will resist this army” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 8, pp. 403-04). Lenin created a proletarian party of a new type, which for the first time combined scientific socialism with a mass labor movement. In contrast to the social democratic parties of the West - the parties of social reforms and parliamentary methods, the parties of the 2nd International with their organizational impotence, Lenin created a militant centralized political party of revolutionary action, irreconcilable to the bourgeoisie, closely connected with the masses, ideologically and organizationally united, capable of preparing the proletariat to the conquest of power, a party armed with revolutionary theory. “... The role of an advanced fighter,” Lenin pointed out, “can be performed only by a party led by an advanced theory” (ibid., vol. 6, p. 25). In terms of its ideology, type of structure, and nature of its activity, the CPSU is a consistently internationalist party.
Lenin led the party through severe trials and cruel persecution. “We are walking in a tight group along a steep and difficult path, firmly holding hands,” wrote Lenin. - We are surrounded on all sides by enemies, and we almost always have to go under their fire. We united, according to a freely adopted decision, precisely in order to fight enemies ... ”(ibid., p. 9). In this struggle the Party grew stronger and became an irresistible force.
After the victory of the October Revolution, the Communist Party became the only political party in the country. The petty-bourgeois parties (Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, and others) exposed themselves as anti-proletarian, anti-people. The policy of conciliation led them to betray the interests of the working class and all working people; in the end they slipped into the camp of the counter-revolution. The CPSU became the ruling party. Lenin in 1918 pointed out: “We, the Bolshevik Party, convinced Russia. We won back Russia - from the rich for the poor, from the exploiters for the working people. We must now govern Russia” (ibid., vol. 36, p. 172). Lenin taught: “In order to govern, one must have an army of seasoned communist revolutionaries, it exists, it is called a party” (ibid., vol. 42, p. 254).
The CPSU directs all the creative activity of the Soviet people, develops a scientifically substantiated domestic and foreign policy of the Soviet state, unites and directs the work of state bodies and public organizations: Soviets of working people's deputies, trade unions, Komsomol, cooperative associations, creative unions, cultural and scientific and technical societies, sports and defense organizations, etc. “Not a single important political or organizational issue,” Lenin pointed out, “is decided by any state institution in our republic without the guiding instructions of the Central Committee of the Party” (ibid., vol. 41, pp. 30-31). The Constitution of the USSR (1936) legislated the leading role of the CPSU in the Soviet state. Article 126 of the Constitution reads: “... The most active and conscious citizens from the ranks of the working class, working peasants and working intelligentsia voluntarily unite in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, which is the vanguard of the working people in their struggle to build a communist society and represents the leading core of all organizations of working people, as public and state" [Constitution (Basic Law) of the USSR, 1971, p. 28]. The CPSU, guided by the decisions of party congresses, determines the course of the country's economic development, the direction of current and long-term national economic plans approved by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the policy in the field of capital investment, labor and wages, achieves high rates of development of industrial, agricultural and construction production, transport, the development of science, cultural construction, health care, the expansion of trade, the entire service sector. The Party is consistently pursuing a policy of ensuring a significant rise in the material and cultural standard of living of the people. To achieve these goals, the party calls for an increase in the efficiency of socialist production, for organic compound achievements of the scientific and technological revolution with the advantages of the socialist economic system. The Party is doing a lot of work to strengthen state bodies and public organizations with politically trained personnel. The leadership of the Soviets, economic bodies, trade unions, Komsomol and other public organizations is carried out by the party through the communists working in these organizations, not allowing their substitution, depersonalization, confusion of the functions of party and other bodies. The Party not only issues guiding directives and directives, but also checks their implementation.
The CPSU is a militant union of like-minded communists. Creatively developing Marxist-Leninist teaching, enriching it with conclusions from the experience of socialist and communist construction in the USSR and foreign socialist countries, the world communist and working-class movement, the CPSU is irreconcilable to any manifestations of revisionism and dogmatism, deeply alien to revolutionary theory. The CPSU developed, grew and gained strength in a principled struggle against the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, anarchists, bourgeois nationalists, various anti-Leninist trends and deviations within the party - Trotskyists, right-wing opportunists, national deviationists. The CPSU holds high the Marxist-Leninist banner in the struggle against revisionism and petty-bourgeois revolutionism in the world communist movement. Consistently upholding the policy of peaceful coexistence of states with different social systems, the CPSU is irreconcilable in its struggle against bourgeois ideology. It resolutely comes out with the exposure of anti-communism - the main ideological and political weapon of imperialism.
The CPSU is the ideological educator of the people. Guided by the theory of Marxism-Leninism, the party educates the masses of working people in the spirit of communist consciousness, conducts daily propaganda and agitation activities, and directs the mass media (press, television, radio, etc.). The Party is striving that every communist in his whole life observe and inculcate in the working people the communist moral principles set forth in the Program and Rules of the CPSU.
The CPSU was created as a single party of the proletariat of all multinational Russia. Pariah unites in its ranks representatives of all nations and nationalities of the USSR. The leader of the CPSU, Lenin, was the founder of the Communist International. Internationalism forms the basis of the Leninist national program of the party, which was realized in the rapid upsurge of the economy and the flourishing of the culture of all Soviet republics, in the creation and growth of a single multinational socialist state - the USSR, which became a bulwark of friendship and brotherhood of the Soviet peoples. Internationalism is one of the fundamental principles of the Leninist foreign policy of the CPSU and the Soviet state - a policy of actively defending peace and strengthening international security, ensuring favorable external conditions for building communism in the USSR, for protecting socialism and the freedom of peoples. The CPSU is consistently pursuing a policy of unity and development of the world socialist system, strengthening friendship with the fraternal countries of socialism, unity and international solidarity with the workers' movement in capital countries, supporting peoples fighting for national and social liberation, for genuine political and economic independence, against imperialism and neo-colonialism .
The organizational foundations of the CPSU are embodied in Charter of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. It determines the norms of party life, the methods and forms of party building, the ways of leading the party in all spheres of state, economic, ideological and social activity. According to the Charter, the guiding principle of the organizational structure of the party is democratic centralism , meaning: the election of all the leading bodies of the party from top to bottom; periodic reporting of party bodies to their party organizations and to higher bodies; strict party discipline and the subordination of the minority to the majority; unconditional binding of decisions of higher bodies for lower ones. Criticism and self-criticism develop on the basis of inner-Party democracy, and Party discipline is strengthened. Any manifestation of factionalism is incompatible with Marxist-Leninist partisanship. The highest principle of Party leadership is the collectivity of leadership - an indispensable condition for the normal activity of Party organizations, the correct education of cadres, the development of activeness and amateur activity of communists.
Any citizen of the Soviet Union who recognizes the Program and Rules of the Party, actively participates in building communism, works in one of the Party organizations, carries out the decisions of the Party and pays membership dues, can be a member of the CPSU. A member of the CPSU is obliged to serve as an example of a communist attitude to work and the fulfillment of public duty, to firmly and unswervingly implement the decisions of the Party, to explain the policy of the Party to the masses, to actively participate in the political life of the country, in the management of state affairs, in economic and cultural construction, to master the Marxist-Leninist theory, to wage a resolute struggle against any manifestations of bourgeois ideology, against the remnants of private property psychology, religious prejudices and other remnants of the past, to observe the principles of communist morality, to show sensitivity and attention to people, to be an active conductor of the ideas of socialist internationalism and Soviet patriotism among the masses of working people, to strengthen in every possible way unity of the Party, to be truthful and honest before the Party and the people, to develop criticism and self-criticism, to observe Party and state discipline, equally obligatory for all members of the Party, to exercise vigilance, to assist in every possible way strengthening the defense power of the USSR.
A party member has the right to elect and be elected to party bodies, to freely discuss at party meetings, conferences, congresses, at meetings of party committees and in the party press issues of the policy and practical activities of the party, to make proposals, to openly express and defend his opinion until the organization makes a decision. ; to criticize at party meetings, conferences, congresses, plenums of the committee of any communist, regardless of his post.
Admission to the CPSU is carried out exclusively on an individual basis. Conscious, active and devoted to the cause of communism workers, peasants and representatives of the intelligentsia are accepted as members of the Party. Those who join the party undergo candidate probation (for a period of 1 year). The party accepts persons who have reached the age of 18. Young people up to 23 years old inclusive join the party only through the Komsomol.
For non-fulfillment of statutory duties and other misconduct, a party member or candidate member is held liable and penalties may be imposed on him. The highest measure of party punishment is expulsion from the party.
The CPSU is built according to the territorial production principle: the primary organizations of the party are created at the place of work of the communists and are united into district, city, etc. organizations across the territory. The highest governing bodies of party organizations are the general meeting (for primary organizations), the conference (for district, city, district, regional, territorial organizations), the congress (for the communist parties of the union republics, for the CPSU). The general meeting, conference or congress elects a bureau or committee, which is the executive body and directs all the current work of the party organization. Elections of party bodies are held by closed (secret) voting.
The Party Congress is the supreme body of the CPSU. The Congress elects the Central Committee and the Central Audit Commission. Regular congresses are convened at least once every 5 years. Between congresses, the Central Committee of the CPSU directs all the activities of the Party.
The Central Committee of the CPSU elects: to guide the work of the party between the Plenums of the Central Committee - the Politburo; to manage the current work, mainly on the selection of personnel and the organization of verification of performance, - the Secretariat. The Central Committee elects the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU. The Central Committee of the CPSU organizes a Party Control Committee under the Central Committee.
Local party organizations are constituent parts of a single CPSU, covering the entire territory of the USSR. Within their territorial boundaries, they carry out the policy of the party, organize and carry out the implementation of the directives of its highest bodies.
The basis of the party is the primary organizations. They are created at the place of work of party members - at plants, factories, state farms and other enterprises, collective farms, units of the Soviet Army, institutions, educational institutions, etc. with at least three party members. Territorial primary party organizations are also being created at the place of residence of the communists: in rural areas and at house administrations. The primary party organization accepts new members in the CPSU, educates communists in the spirit of devotion to the cause of the party, ideological conviction, communist morality, organizes the study of Marxist-Leninist theory by communists, and conducts mass agitation and propaganda work. The primary Party organization is concerned with enhancing the vanguard role of the Communists in labor, socio-political and economic life, acts as an organizer of the working people in solving the immediate tasks of communist construction, leads socialist emulation, strives to strengthen labor discipline, steadily increase labor productivity, improve the quality of products, on the basis of a broad deployment of criticism and self-criticism is fighting against manifestations of bureaucracy, parochialism, violations of state discipline and other shortcomings. Primary party organizations of enterprises in industry, transport, communications, construction, logistics, trade, public catering, public utilities, collective farms, state farms and other agricultural enterprises, design organizations, design bureaus, research institutes, educational institutions, cultural and educational and medical institutions enjoy the right to control the activities of the administration. Party organizations of ministries, state committees and other central and local Soviet, economic institutions and departments exercise control over the work of the apparatus in fulfilling the directives of the party and government, and observing Soviet laws. They are called upon to actively influence the improvement of the work of the apparatus, educate employees in the spirit of high responsibility for the assigned work, take measures to strengthen state discipline, improve public services, wage a resolute fight against bureaucracy and red tape, promptly report shortcomings in the work of institutions to the relevant Party bodies, as well as individual employees, regardless of their positions. Party work in the Armed Forces is directed by the Central Committee of the CPSU through the Main Political Directorate of the Soviet Army and Navy, which operates as a department of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
Works under the leadership of the CPSU All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union (VLKSM) - an active assistant and reserve of the party.
As of January 1, 1973, there were 14,821,031 communists in the CPSU (14,330,525 members of the CPSU and 490,506 candidate members of the CPSU). They united in 14 communist parties of the union republics, 6 regional, 142 regional, 10 district, 774 city, 480 district in cities, 2832 rural district, 378 740 primary party organizations. The CPSU consisted of 6,037,771 workers - 40.7% and 2,169,764 peasants (collective farmers) - 14.7% of the total composition of the party. Among the Communists, there were 6,561,000 specialists with higher and secondary specialized education, that is, 44.3% of the total number, including 16,592 doctors and 132,708 candidates of sciences. There were 3,412,000 women in the CPSU.
In the system of party education in 1972/73 academic year about 17 million people studied. Leading party and Soviet cadres study at the Academy of Social Sciences under the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Correspondence Higher Party School under the Central Committee of the CPSU; in 1973 there were also 13 republican and interregional higher party schools and 20 Soviet party schools.
The research center is the Institute of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the CPSU, which has its branches in the Union republics.
The CPSU conducts extensive publishing activities (see. Bolshevik seal, Party and Soviet press ). Organ of the Central Committee of the CPSU - the newspaper "Pravda". Newspapers of the Central Committee of the CPSU: "Soviet Russia", "Socialist Industry", "Rural Life", "Soviet Culture". Weekly of the Central Committee of the CPSU - "Economic newspaper". Theoretical and political journal of the Central Committee of the CPSU - "Communist". Magazines of the Central Committee of the CPSU: "Agitator", "Party Life", "Political Self-Education". Under the jurisdiction of the Central Committee of the CPSU are: Publishing house "Pravda", "Publishing house of political literature" (Politizdat). The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Union Republics also has its own publishing houses.
The main stages in the history of the CPSU
Creation of the Bolshevik Party. The Marxist Party in Russia was the successor to the richest revolutionary traditions. V.I. Lenin called the revolutionary democrats, Russian utopian socialists, V.G. Belinsky, A.I. Herzen, N.G. Chernyshevsky, N.A. who advocated the overthrow of the autocracy through a peasant revolution and believed that Russia could go over to socialism, bypassing capitalism (see. Populism ).
With the development of capitalism in Russia in the second half of the 19th century, the accelerated formation of new social classes - the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, with the intensification of contradictions between them, the class struggle. Since the mid 70s. the leading representatives of the nascent labor movement began to look for their own path, different from the populist one. The advanced workers studied the struggle of the Western European proletariat, the activities of the First International, the experience of the Paris Commune of 1871, and became acquainted with the teachings of Marx and Engels.
In the 70s. workers-leaders advanced - S.N. Khalturin, V.P. Obnorsky, P.A. Alekseev, P.A. Moiseenko and others. In the 70s. the first workers' socialist unions arose, operating illegally. Established in 1875 in Odessa "South Russian Union of Workers" (head E.O. Zaslavsky ), in 1878 in St. Petersburg - "Northern Union of Russian Workers" (Heads Khalturin, Obnorsky). Both alliances pointed to their solidarity with the First International, emphasized that the emancipation of the workers was the work of the workers themselves, and put forward the task of forcibly overthrowing the existing system and winning political freedom. But their programs still had the imprint of populist influence.
The development of the labor movement intensified in the 80s. (up to 325 thousand strikers, the largest was Morozov strike of 1885 in Orekhovo-Zuevo). “It was precisely in this era,” Lenin pointed out, “that Russian revolutionary thought worked most intensively, creating the foundations of the social democratic worldview” (Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 12, p. 331). The organizer of the first Russian Marxist group was G. V. Plekhanov, who in 1883 founded the group "Emancipation of Labor" , which declared war on the utopian views of the populists on the nature of the socio-economic system in Russia and the path of revolutionary struggle. In Socialism and the Political Struggle (1883) and Our Differences (1885), Plekhanov dealt an ideological blow to populism, proving that Russia had embarked on the path of development of capitalism, and emphasized that revolutionaries in the struggle against autocracy and capitalism must rely on the proletariat. as the most advanced social force. Plekhanov raised the question of the need to create a party of the Russian working class. The Emancipation of Labor group drew up two drafts of the program of such a party, which, despite certain shortcomings of the populist persuasion, basically determined the direction of the struggle and tasks of the Russian Marxists correctly for their time. “The Emancipation of Labor group only theoretically founded Social Democracy and took the first step towards the working-class movement” (ibid., vol. 25, p. 132). Along with this group, and then under its influence, social democratic organizations began to emerge: in December 1883 in St. Petersburg - the "Party of Russian Social Democrats" (see. Blagoev group ), in 1885 - "Association of St. Petersburg craftsmen" (Head P. V. Tochissky). In 1888-89 in the Volga region, the organizer of Marxist circles was N. Ye. Fedoseev ; such circles and social-democratic groups appeared in the Ukraine, Belorussia, Poland, and Lithuania. In 1889 M.I. Brusnev created in St. Petersburg a social-democratic organization that united students and workers. In the 90s. illegal social democratic groups and circles were formed in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Kazan, Ivanovo-Voznesensk, Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkov, Rostov-on-Don, Riga, Samara and other cities. The decade 1883-94 was the period of the birth of the social democratic movement in Russia, the emergence and consolidation of the theory and program of social democracy. The Emancipation of Labor group in the early 1990s. continued to spread Marxism. In 1895, Plekhanov legally published in St. Petersburg the book "On the Development of the Monistic View of History", in which he gave a systematic exposition of the most important provisions of the teachings of Marx and Engels on the laws community development, about driving forces stories. On this book, Lenin said, a whole generation of Russian Marxists was brought up.
Russian Social Democracy existed for a long time in the form of circles and unions that were not connected with each other. This was an inevitable stage in the conditions of the autocratic system. In the 80s and early 90s. “Social Democracy existed when the working-class movement was poorly developed, going through, as a political party, the process of uterine development” (ibid., vol. 6, p. 180). This period was an important stage in the formation of Russian social democracy, the mastery of the Marxist worldview.
The establishment of the Marxist trend and the development of Marxist teaching in Russia is associated with the name of V. I. Lenin, who began his revolutionary activity in the late 80s. Lenin's works of the 1990s played a major role in this. populists and "legal Marxists", especially "What are the "friends of the people" and how do they fight against the social democrats?" and "The Development of Capitalism in Russia". Lenin in his works began to develop revolutionary theory, taking into account the new historical experience, the new needs of the revolutionary movement. “Marxism, as the only correct revolutionary theory,” Lenin later wrote, “Russia truly suffered through half a century of unheard-of torment and sacrifice, unprecedented revolutionary heroism, incredible energy and selfless search, learning, testing in practice, disappointment, testing, comparing the experience of Europe” ( ibid., vol. 41, p. 8).
In the 90s. as a result of a rapid industrial upsurge, Russia became a country with an average level of development of capitalism. The size of the proletariat has doubled in a decade. More than 1.5 million workers were employed in industry and transport; in all, there were about 10 million hired workers.
Since the mid 90s. in Russian freedom movement the proletarian stage began. The working class began to form its own party. In 1895 V. I. Lenin with a group of Marxists (G. M. Krzhizhanovsky, V. V. Starkov, N. K. Krupskaya, L. Martov, workers I. V. Babushkin, M. I. Kalinin, V. A. Shelgunov and others) organized Petersburg Union of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class, who began to combine scientific socialism with the labor movement. It was the germ of a revolutionary proletarian party based on the mass working-class movement. "Unions of Struggle" were also created in Yekaterinoslav and Kyiv, "Workers' Unions" in Moscow and Ivanovo-Voznesensk; social democratic organizations sprang up all over the country. By 1898 there were illegal Marxist organizations and groups in more than 50 cities.
On the initiative of the St. Petersburg "Union of Struggle" March 1-3 (13-15), 1898 in Minsk was convened First Congress of the RSDLP, Lenin was not present at the congress, as he was arrested and sent to Siberian exile in 1897. The Congress proclaimed the creation of a Marxist Labor Party and decided to call it the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP), that is, the party of the proletariat of all nationalities in Russia. After the congress, the social democratic organizations and unions adopted the names of the committees of the RSDLP. However, there was no unity in the committees and, in fact, the party, as a single centralized organization, did not yet exist; Social Democratic organizations were still left without a leading center, since the Party Central Committee elected at the congress was soon arrested. Some social democrats and social democratic groups justified this organizational fragmentation and ideological confusion. An opportunist trend appeared in the RSDLP - "economism". The "Economists" opposed the organization of an independent political party of the working class, opposed the political struggle, called for a struggle only for economic demands.
While in exile, Lenin developed a plan to create a single, centralized Marxist party with the help of an all-Russian political newspaper. Returning from exile (1900), he began active work on organizing such a party; a decisive role in this was played by the all-Russian political illegal newspaper created abroad by Lenin, together with Plekhanov and his group "Spark".
The objective prerequisites for the emergence of the Russian Marxist Party were due to the development of capitalism in the country, the growth of the labor movement. At the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. Russia, among other states, has entered the highest stage in the development of capitalism - imperialism. At the beginning of the 20th century it was the focal point of the contradictions of world imperialism. The country was characterized by all the socio-economic contradictions of capitalist society, which were especially acute due to the system of political, spiritual and national oppression of the tsarist autocracy. The revolutionary transition from capitalism to socialism has become an urgent need for social development. The proletariat acted as a social force called upon and capable of leading the struggle for a radical reorganization of society. But the working class could fulfill this great mission only if it had a militant Marxist party.
By the beginning of the 20th century economic and social background popular revolution. The center of the revolutionary movement moved from Western Europe to Russia, which became the birthplace of Leninism, the world center of revolutionary thought and revolutionary action. Lenin in the book "What to do?" (1902) developed the ideas of Marx and Engels about the proletarian party, developed the foundations of the doctrine of a revolutionary Marxist party of a new type, capable of leading the masses to a socialist revolution. He revealed the greatest significance of Marxist theory, without which there can be no revolutionary movement.
With the leading participation of Lenin, the editors of Iskra worked out a Marxist
Article about the word Communist Party of the Soviet Union" in the Great Soviet Encyclopedia was read 6882 times
The Union of Communist Parties - CPSU (SKP-CPSU) is a voluntary international public association of communist parties operating in the states formed on the territory of the USSR. Its main goals are the protection of the rights and social gains of the working people, the preservation and restoration of the lost foundations of socialism, the revival of all-round ties and friendship of the Soviet peoples, and the re-establishment of their state union on a voluntary basis.
After the anti-constitutional ban on the activities of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in August 1991, the communists fought for its restoration throughout the entire territory of the Soviet Union. In June 1992, an initiative group of members of the Central Committee of the CPSU held a Plenum, at which M. Gorbachev was expelled from the party, the activities of the Politburo of the Central Committee were suspended, and a decision was made to convene an All-Union Party Conference. On October 10, 1992, the XX All-Union Conference of the CPSU was held in Moscow, which confirmed the decisions of the emergency Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU, considered the drafts of the new Program and the Charter of the CPSU, and decided to prepare the XXIX Congress of the CPSU.
Almost simultaneously with these events, the Constitutional Court Russian Federation considered the petition of 37 people's deputies of the RSFSR to check the constitutionality of the decrees of President B. Yeltsin, who dissolved the CPSU and the Communist Party of the RSFSR. The court ruled that the suspension of the activities of the Communist Party of the RSFSR, its primary organizations formed on a territorial basis, was inconsistent with the Russian Constitution, but upheld the dissolution of the leading structures of the CPSU and the Communist Party of the RSFSR. Orders on the transfer of property of the CPSU to the executive authorities were recognized as legal only in relation to that part of the property managed by the party, which was state property, and unconstitutional in relation to that part of it, which was either the property of the CPSU, or was under its jurisdiction.
On March 26-27, 1993, the 29th Congress of the CPSU was held in Moscow. 416 delegates from party organizations of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Estonia, Transnistria and South Ossetia took part in its work. Based on the real conditions of the activity of communist parties in the republics of the former USSR, the congress temporarily, until the re-establishment of the renewed USSR, reorganized the CPSU into the Union of Communist Parties - the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (SKP-CPSU), adopted its Program and Charter, elected a Council headed by Oleg Semenovich Shenin (1937 -2009). The congress proclaimed the SKP - CPSU the legal successor of the CPSU, and the communist parties operating on the territory of the USSR - the legal successors of the republican organizations of the CPSU.
In 1993 - 1995 communist parties were restored in all the former republics of the USSR, except for Turkmenistan. In a number of republics, unfortunately, several communist parties and movements arose on the basis of the membership of the CPSU. Thus, by July 1995, 26 communist parties and organizations were operating in the post-Soviet space. 22 of them, uniting 1 million 300 thousand communists, became part of the Union of Communist Parties - the CPSU. Among them are the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Russian Communist Workers' Party, the Communist Party of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Communist Party of Ukraine, the Union of Communists of Ukraine, the Movement for Democracy, Social Progress and Justice in Belarus, the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova, the Communist Party of Workers of Transnistria, the Communist Party of South Ossetia, United Communist Party of Georgia, Communist Party of Abkhazia, Communist Party of Azerbaijan, Union of Workers of Armenia, Communist Party of Kazakhstan, Communist Party of Tajikistan, Communist Party of Uzbekistan, Communist Party of Kyrgyzstan, Communist Party of Estonia, Union of Communists of Latvia, Communist Party of Lithuania.
On July 1 - 2, 1995, the XXX Congress of the UCP-CPSU was held in Moscow. It was attended by 462 delegates from all communist parties and organizations that are part of the SKP - CPSU. The Congress heard the Political Report of the Council and the Control and Revision Commission of the UPC-CPSU, adopted a new version of the Program, changes and additions to the Charter of the UPC-CPSU, approved the Regulations on the Control and Revision Commission, elected new composition Council and KRK SKP-CPSU.
The Supreme Forum of Soviet Communists confirmed the status of the SKP - CPSU as a voluntary international association of communist parties operating in states throughout the Soviet Union and adhering to uniform program and statutory principles. He set the task of launching a mass movement among the broad strata of the people for the restoration of the Union Socialist State, providing the necessary assistance to the activities of the Committee of the Peoples of the USSR, and waging an offensive struggle against manifestations of aggressive nationalism and chauvinism.
In the period between the XXIX and XXXI congresses of the UCP-CPSU, the Communist Party of Tatarstan determined its status as a regional branch of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. Instead of the "Movement for Democracy, Social Progress and Justice in Belarus", the Communist Party of Belarus joined the UPC-CPSU. The Communist Party of Armenia and another Communist Party working under special conditions were accepted into the ranks of the Union. On the eve of the XXXI Congress, the UCP-CPSU included 19 communist parties with a decisive vote, one party (the Russian Party of Communists) and two movements (the Union of Communists of Ukraine and the Union of Workers of Armenia) with an advisory vote.
The XXXI Congress of the UCP-CPSU was held in Moscow on October 31 - November 1, 1998. 482 delegates from 20 Republican parties and 2 public associations operating in all states on the territory of the USSR. The Union of Communist Parties for the first time held a congress as a public organization officially registered by the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Belarus. The congress considered the following agenda:
1) Political report of the UPC-CPSU Council. 2) Report of the Control and Auditing Commission of the UPC-CPSU. 3) Elections of the Council and the Control and Audit Commission of the UPC-CPSU.
On the issues discussed, the congress adopted a number of resolutions and resolutions. The delegates approved a new version of the Charter of the UPC-CPSU, adopted a Political Statement, resolutions in defense of the memory of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, against the political persecution of communists and activists of the labor movement, against the aggressive plans of NATO.
The first joint Plenum of the Council and the Committee of the UPC-CPSU again elected O.S. Shenin, Vice-Chairmen - Secretaries of the Council of the UPC-CPSU A.M. Bagemsky, P.I. Georgadze, E.I. Kopysheva, E.K. Ligacheva, I.V. Lopatina, K.A. Nikolaev, A.G. Chekhoeva, A.A. Shabanova, Sh.D. Shabdolov.
However, by 2000 the coordinating role of the governing bodies of the UPC-CPSU was seriously weakened, the principle of collective leadership was constantly violated. Moreover, in July 2000, the Chairman of the Council and three of his deputies, without the decision of the Council of the UPC-CPSU, held the so-called "constituent congress of the Union Communist Party of Russia and Belarus" (CPS). The Communist Parties of the Russian Federation and Belarus did not send their delegates to this event. In fact, the creation of another Communist Party on the territory of Russia was proclaimed. The sectarian separation from the masses, the passion for ultra-leftist phrases with insignificant results of practical activity, and many other political mistakes did not allow the group of former leaders of the UPC-CPSU to submit to the will of the majority. It became clear that their real goal was a direct attack on the Communist Party of the Russian Federation as a center of attraction for communist forces recognized by all fraternal parties on the territory of the destroyed Soviet Union.
On January 20, 2001, at the request of the majority of the Communist Parties, which unite in their ranks more than 90 percent of the Communists of the Union, meetings of the Executive Committee and the Plenum of the Council of the UPC-CPSU were held in full accordance with the Charter. The Plenum of the Council stated that the creation of the “Union Communist Party” outside the framework of the UCP-CPSU and without the participation of the Communist Parties of Russia and Belarus inevitably leads to a split in the unified communist movement in the post-Soviet space. The former Chairman of the Council of the UPC-CPSU, in essence, placed himself outside the Union.
The Plenum unanimously elected the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Andreyevich Zyuganov as the Chairman of the Council of the UPC-CPSU, thus inscribing a bright page in the history of the Union and bringing all its activities to a qualitatively new level. The January (2001) Plenum of the UCP-CPSU Council averted the threat of destruction of the Union of Communist Parties by adopting the Resolution "On strengthening the Union of Communist Parties - CPSU and increasing the effectiveness of its leadership."
The next, XXXII Congress of the UCP-CPSU was held on October 27, 2001 in Moscow. 243 delegates from the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, the Communist Party of Armenia, the Communist Party of Belarus, the United Communist Party of Georgia, the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, the Party of Communists of Kyrgyzstan, the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, the Communist Party of Ukraine, the Communist Party of the Republic of South Ossetia and four communist parties working in special conditions.
The Congress listened to the political report of the Council and the report of the Control and Revision Commission of the UPC-CPSU, information on changes in the Charter of the organization, adopted a Resolution on the political report, an Appeal to the fraternal peoples, resolutions “On the current stage of globalization” and “On the threat of world war”. The governing bodies of the UPC-CPSU were elected. The organizational Plenum of the Council of the UPC-CPSU confirmed the authority of G.A. Zyuganov as Chairman of the Council of the UPC-CPSU and G.G. Ponomarenko (KPU) - as Chairman of the CRC.
The long overdue changes in the governing core of the UPC-CPSU Council had a positive impact on the style and methods of its work. In the period between the XXXII and XXXIII Congresses, meetings of the Secretariat, the Executive Committee and the Plenums of the Council became regular, a number of major international events were held - the I and II Congresses of Peoples Union State Belarus and Russia, congresses of the peoples of the Caucasus and the Central Asian region, round table "The struggle of the fraternal peoples for the restoration of the Union State is the way to the revival of the country, repelling external threats, improving the well-being of people."
Due attention was paid to the education of the Komsomol shift. After the catastrophe of 1991, the VLKSM was disbanded by quick-witted chameleon functionaries, who quickly repainted themselves in the colors of their new owners. But already from the beginning of 1992, the process of reunification of Komsomol organizations began to gain momentum, culminating in the XXIII (restoration) congress of the All-Union Leninist Komsomol. However, the organization, for a number of reasons, was unable to adapt to the new conditions, to rally the communist youth of the former Soviet republics. Formation new form unification took several years, which led to the holding in April 2001 of the XXV Congress of the Komsomol in Kyiv. The congress transformed the VLKSM into the International Union of Komsomol Organizations - the All-Union Leninist Communist Youth Union. The IUCN-VLKSM includes the Komsomol of the Russian Federation, the Komsomol of Ukraine, the Belarusian Republican Youth Union, the Komsomol of Moldova, the Komsomol of Georgia, the Communist Youth Organization of Armenia, the Komsomol of Azerbaijan, the Komsomol of Kyrgyzstan, the Union of Communist Youth of South Ossetia, the Komsomol of Transnistria.
The UCP-CPSU approached its XXXIII Congress as an authoritative international organization, which has preserved the spirit of creative Marxism-Leninism, proletarian internationalism and party camaraderie. 140 delegates from 16 fraternal communist parties were elected to the congress convened in Moscow on April 16, 2005. By unanimous decision, mandate No. 1 was issued in the name of the founder of the Communist Party, V.I. Lenin, mandate No. 2 - to his faithful comrade-in-arms, the Supreme Commander Great Victory the Soviet people over fascism I.V. Stalin.
The congress heard the political report of the Council, which was made by G.A. Zyuganov, and the report of the Deputy Chairman of the UPC-CPSU Committee of Committees G.M. Benova. As a result of the discussion of the reports, the Congress adopted a Resolution and a Statement addressed to the ruling regimes of Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Transnistria, Russia and Turkmenistan demanding the release of political prisoners and an end to the persecution of citizens for political reasons. The XXXIII Congress of the UCP-CPSU elected a new Council of 65 representatives of all fraternal Communist Parties, a Control and Audit Commission of 16 people. At the congress, a new principle of membership in the Union and the formation of its governing bodies was established: "One state - one communist party."
In 2005 - 2008 at the meetings of the Executive Committee of the Council of the UPC-CPSU and the Plenums of the Council, issues related to the aggravation of the socio-political situation in Georgia and Ukraine, the implementation of measures in support of the Belarusian people and solidarity with the activities of the President of Belarus A.G. Lukashenka, organizing a rebuff to anti-communist attacks in PACE, celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Great October Revolution, providing assistance to fraternal parties during election campaigns.
On March 27, 2008, the Union of Communist Parties - the CPSU celebrated its 15th anniversary. At a round table in the editorial office of the Pravda newspaper, it was stated that the ideological commonality and unity of goals allow the communist parties in the CIS republics to interact effectively, despite the huge differences in their working conditions. The Moldavian comrades came to power in a peaceful, democratic way. In Belarus, the Communist Party supports the patriotic and socially oriented course of the President. At the same time, in the states of the Baltics and Central Asia, the communists are actually fighting underground against the ruling fascist and semi-feudal regimes. The leaders of the Lithuanian Communist Party M.M. Burokyavichyus (12 years old), Yu.Yu. Ermalavičius (8 years old), Yu.Yu. Kuolialis (6 years old). For almost a decade, the leader of the Communists of Turkmenistan, S.S., has been in prison. Rakhimov. But nowhere and no one will be able to kill the communist idea. At 9 out of 19 state formations on the territory of the destroyed USSR, the communist parties have their own factions in parliaments. The ranks of fighters against capitalist genocide, for social justice and democracy are constantly growing.
On October 24, 2009, Moscow again hosted a multinational family of communist fraternal parties - the XXXIV Congress of the UCP-CPSU opened. It was attended by 142 delegates, 114 guests and invitees. Among them are veterans of the party, deputies of the parliaments of the CIS countries and far abroad, representatives of the presidential administration and the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, youth activists, and the patriotic community. More than 20 federal and foreign mass media were accredited.
The Congress heard and discussed the reports of the Council and the CRC of the UPC-CPSU, as well as the report "On Clarifications and Additions to the Program of the UPC-CPSU". The work of the governing bodies was found to be satisfactory, changes in the Program of the Union were approved. In addition to the final Resolution, the XXXIV Congress of the UCP-CPSU adopted the Statement "Stop political terror, release political prisoners!". The Council and the Control and Audit Commission of the Union were elected. At the first organizational Plenum - new members of the Executive Committee and the Secretariat of the Council of the UPC-CPSU. Currently, the Chairman of the Council is G.A. Zyuganov, his First Deputy - K.K. Taysaev, the Secretariat of the UPC-CPSU Council includes comrades Yu.Yu. Ermalavichyus, E.K. Ligachev, A.E. Elbow, I.N. Makarov, I.I. Nikitchuk, D.G. Novikov. A.V. Svirid (Communist Party of Belarus).
In 2009 - 2012 the activities of the governing bodies of the UPC-CPSU were focused on the problems of countering the falsification of historical truth, organizing international events in honor of the 65th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War and the 140th anniversary of the birth of V.I. Lenin, preparing for the XVII World Festival of Youth and Students, promoting the recognition of the statehood of the republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
The International Forum “Unity is the way to save fraternal peoples!”, timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the August counter-revolutionary coup and the criminal collapse of the USSR, became a large-scale, bright and emotionally rich action. The organizers of the forum, which took place on August 19, 2011 in Donetsk, were the Council of the UPC-CPSU and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. One of the central squares of the mining capital of Ukraine, on which a monument to V.I. Lenin, became red both literally and figuratively. Not only residents of the city, Ukrainian communists and Komsomol members, but also representatives of almost all the republics of the USSR gathered here. Delegations from the Rostov region, Krasnodar and Stavropol territories also managed to break through to the forum, which, on far-fetched pretexts, the Ukrainian border service tried not to let through. “It is symbolic,” said the political secretary of the Central Committee of the United Communist Party of Georgia T.I. Pipia, - that today we have all gathered on the Slavic land. It was the Slavic land that took the first blow in 1941, and it was from here that the liberation of our Motherland from the fascist invaders began!
The result of the action was the adoption of the Appeal, which, in particular, stated: “We, the participants of the International Forum in Donetsk, call on all working people who cherish Soviet socialist values to rally around the communists - the true spokesmen for the interests of our peoples - and launch a mass movement for the revival of the a new basis for a common Soviet, socialist Fatherland.
We take into account that in the current conditions this historical task can be solved only with the restoration of the power of the working people and the revival of the socialist social system, the implementation of socialist transformations based on the observance of the Leninist principles of federalism.
February 29, 2012 in Moscow, under the chairmanship of the First Deputy Chairman of the Council of the UPC-CPSU, State Duma deputy K.K. Taysaev, a solemn meeting of the Executive Committee of the Council of the Union of communist parties - the CPSU. The work of the Executive Committee was attended by delegations of all 17 fraternal parties that are part of the UPC-CPSU, and the leaders of Komsomol organizations - members of the MSKOS-VLKSM. The Executive Committee of the UPC-CPSU Council considered the following items on the agenda:
1. On the results of work in 2011 and the tasks of the Council of the UPC-CPSU in connection with the campaign of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation for the election of the President of the Russian Federation.
2. On the program of the candidate for the post of President of the Russian Federation from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation Gennady Andreevich Zyuganov.
3. On the draft Declaration of the Communist Parties "For a new Union of fraternal peoples!".
First withSecretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine P.N. Simonenko stressed that only as part of the UPC-CPSU do we see the future of our party and of the communist movement as a whole in the post-Soviet space. The situation requires us communists to make serious decisions. For example, all the hopes that Ukrainians had for improving relations with Russia, relying on the political forces of big business, melted away. We are well aware that without our common victory in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and other former Soviet republics, it is impossible to resolve the issue of the unity of our peoples, of their worthy future.
To the stormy applause of the hall, each of the representatives of the fraternal communist parties put his signature under the text of the historic Declaration "For a new Union of fraternal peoples!". In conclusion, the Executive Committee unanimously adopted two short statements: "Hands off Belarus!" and "NO - the power of usurpers!" - in support of the struggle of the Moldovan people under the leadership of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova for the restoration of the constitutional order in the country. In the evening, delegations of fraternal communist parties and youth unions took part in a rally-concert "Our address is the Soviet Union", held at the Luzhniki sports complex.
Further integration of the divided Soviet peoples is not only the main slogan of the SKP-CPSU. This is an objective trend, an integral part of the development of modern mankind. Currently, most regions of the world are involved in integration processes to one degree or another. Over the past 19 years, the Union of Communist Parties - the CPSU has become a real political force that plays a certain role in the system of interstate relations in the post-Soviet space.
On March 17, 1991, at the national referendum, more than three-quarters of the citizens of the USSR firmly and unequivocally said: we are for the preservation of the Soviet Union as a renewed Federation of equal, sovereign republics, in which the rights and freedoms of a person of any nationality will be fully guaranteed.
The cynical violation of the direct will of the Soviet people led to the collapse of a thousand-year-old world power and plunged its peoples into the most difficult trials. The basic sectors of the economy have been destroyed. Millions of compatriots found themselves in the humiliating position of refugees. Hundreds of thousands of dead and injured in bloody ethnic conflicts. The mass death of people from rampant violence, social insecurity, and man-made disasters continues.
Today, history once again confronts the peoples of our common Motherland with the same choice as in 1917 and 1941: either a powerful united country and socialism, or enslavement and death. The lessons of the historical past and current global trends indicate that the unification of our states and peoples is the most urgent need.
All the objective prerequisites for integration are present. The criminal Belovezhskaya collusion was already denounced in 1996 by the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on the initiative of the communist faction. For many years the hand of indestructible friendship has been extended to Russia Belarusian people and its leader A.G. Lukashenko. Integration needs ensured the creation of the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, the Eurasian Economic Community and the Collective Security Treaty Organization.
Global imperialism and its puppets - national capitalist and semi-feudal cliques ruling in most of the republics of the destroyed USSR stand in the way of further rallying the fraternal peoples. A good example of this is the shameful "gas" wars unleashed by the Russian thieves' oligarchy against Belarus, regular information attacks on the Belarusian president.
Playing a positive role in initial stage reunification of the fraternal Soviet peoples, the Commonwealth is gradually being destroyed Independent States. A number of leaders of the CIS member states do not hide the fact that it was created not for unification, but for a "civilized divorce." The fate of the Commonwealth, created on the ashes of the Soviet state, can be sealed by the founders, who will let it die "of its own death."
This prospect does not suit us. The work of building the Union State must be taken over by the working people, the fraternal communist parties, and all patriots of the Soviet Motherland. Following the precepts of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, we reaffirm our loyalty to the principles laid down in the Declaration on the Formation of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, adopted on December 30, 1922 by the First All-Union Congress of Soviets.
We are already acting for the gradual revival of the renewed Union of Peoples. We are optimists and we are convinced that our peoples will show their age-old wisdom and give a rebuff to the pogromists and destroyers. Together we will enter the broad road of historical progress. They walk along it hand in hand.
We are united by a common historical destiny, the kinship of our characters and cultures. All this is immeasurably higher and stronger than any strife. We, the descendants of the great victors of fascism, are bound by the desire for a decent and peaceful life, faith in a happy future for children and grandchildren. We boldly and decisively move forward.
Our cause is right!
Victory will be ours!
From the Communist Party of Abkhazia
E.Yu. Shamba
From the Communist Party of Azerbaijan
A.M. Veyisov
From the Communist Party of Armenia
R.G. Tovmasyan
From the Communist Party of Belarus
G.P. Atamanov
From the United Communist Party of Georgia
T.I. Pipia
From the Communist Party of Kazakhstan
G.K. Aldamzharov
From the Party of Communists of Kyrgyzstan
Sh.E. Egenberdiev
From the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova
V.S. Vityuk
From the Transnistrian Communist Party
O.O. Khorzhan
From the Communist Party of the Russian Federation
G.A. Zyuganov
From the Communist Party of Uzbekistan
K.A. Mahmudov
From the Communist Party of Ukraine
P.N. Simonenko
From the Communist Party of the Republic of South Ossetia
I.K. Bekoev
The Declaration was also signed by representatives of the Communist Party of Latvia, the Communist Party of Lithuania, the Communist Party of Turkmenistan, the Communist Party of Estonia, acting under special conditions.
Chairman of the Council of the UPC-CPSU
Zyuganov Gennady Andreevich
Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, head of the Communist Party faction in the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Philosophy
First Deputy Chairman of the Council of the UPC-CPSU
Taysaev Kazbek Kutsukovich
Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, First Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on Economic Policy, innovative development and entrepreneurship
Secretariat of the UPC-CPSU Council
Ermalavičius Juozas Juozovich
Ligachev Egor Kuzmich
Lokot Anatoly Evgenievich
Makarov Igor Nikolaevich
Novikov Dmitry Georgievich
Nikitchuk Ivan Ignatievich
Chairman of the Control and Auditing Commission of the UPC-CPSU
Svirid Alexander Vladimirovich
Chairman of the Central Control Commission of the Communist Party of Belarus
Leaders of fraternal communist parties
Avaliani Nugzar Shalvovich
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the United Communist Party of Georgia
Aldamzharov Gaziz Kamashevich
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan
Voronin Vladimir Nikolaevich
Chairman of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova
Karpenko Alexander Vladimirovich
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus
Kochiev Stanislav Yakovlevich
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Republic of South Ossetia
Kurbanov Rauf Muslimovich
Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan
Masaliev Iskhak Absamatovich
Chairman of the Central Committee of the Party of Communists of Kyrgyzstan
Simonenko Petr Nikolaevich
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine
Tovmasyan Ruben Grigorievich
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Armenia
Khorzhan Oleg Olegovich
Chairman of the Transnistrian Communist Party
Shamba Lev Nurbievich
First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Abkhazia
After the end of World War II, communist ideology became one of the most widespread in the world, influencing the lives and destinies of millions of people. The Soviet Union, having won a bloody confrontation with imperialism, confirmed the viability of the socialist path of development of civil society. The formation in October 1949 of the People's Republic of China, where Chinese communists became the helm of a country of many millions, only confirmed the correctness of the Marxist-Leninist ideology in the context of managing a large civil society. New historical realities have created fertile ground for the ceremonial procession of communism around the planet, led by the CPSU.
What is the CPSU and its place in history
In no country in the world, in no part of the world, either before or after, there was, and still is not, a powerful party organization that can be compared in its influence on economic and social life with the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The history of the CPSU is a vivid example of the political management of the state system at all stages of the development of civil society. For 70 years, a huge country was led by a party, controlling all spheres of life Soviet man and influencing the global political order. Decrees of the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Presidium and the Politburo, decisions of plenums, party congresses and party conferences determined the economic development of the country, the directions of the foreign policy of the Soviet state. The Party of Communists did not achieve such power all at once. The Communists (they are Bolsheviks) had to go through a long and thorny path, often zigzag and bloody, in order to finally establish themselves as the only leading political force of the world's first socialist state.
If the history of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union has almost a century, then the abbreviation CPSU - the Communist Party of the Soviet Union arose relatively recently, in 1952. Until that moment, the leading party in the USSR was called the All-Union Communist Party. The history of the CPSU dates back to the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party, founded in Russian Empire in 1898. The first Russian political party of a socialist orientation became the basic platform for the revolutionary movement in Russia. Later, already during the historical events of 1917, a split occurred in the ranks of the RSDLP into the Bolsheviks - supporters of an armed uprising and the forcible seizure of power in the country - and the Mensheviks - a wing of the party that adhered to liberal views. The left wing that had formed in the party, more reactionary and militarized, tried to take the revolutionary situation in Russia under its control, taking an active part in the October armed uprising. It was the RSDLP of the Bolsheviks under the leadership of Ulyanov-Lenin that played the key to the victory of the socialist revolution, taking full power in the country. At the XII Congress of the RSDLP, a decision was made to form the Russian Communist Party of the Bolsheviks, which received the abbreviation RCP (b).
The inclusion of the adjective “communist” in the name of the party, according to V.I. Lenin, should indicate the ultimate goal of the party, for the sake of which all socialist transformations are started in the country.
Having come to power, the former Russian Social Democrats, headed by V.I. Lenin proclaimed their program to build the world's first socialist state of workers and peasants. The basic platform for the state structure was used by the party program, the main focus of which was the Marxist ideology. Having gone through a difficult period civil war, the Bolsheviks set about building statehood, making the party apparatus the main political and administrative structure in the country. The party leadership relied on a powerful ideology, seeking to gain a dominant role in state structure. Along with the soviets, which formally performed representative functions, the Bolsheviks organize their leading party bodies, which eventually begin to fulfill the tasks of the executive branch. The Soviets and the CPSU, which later became known as the Bolshevik Party, maintained close ties in the leadership of the country, formally demonstrating the presence of representative power.
The USSR managed to skillfully disguise the leading role of the party in the electoral process. On the ground there were settlement and city councils of people's deputies, who were elected as a result of a popular vote, but in fact, almost every people's choice is a member of the CPSU. The Soviets were completely absorbed by the party structures of the Communist Party, performing two functions on the ground at once, the representation of the party and the functions of the executive branch. The decisions of the top party leadership were first submitted to the Presidium of the Central Committee, after which it was required to be approved at the Plenum of the Central Committee. In practice, the resolutions of the CPSU Central Committee were often a prerequisite for subsequent legislative acts submitted to meetings of the Supreme Council and Resolutions adopted by the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
We can safely say that the Bolsheviks succeeded in realizing their efforts to achieve the hegemony of political power in Soviet Russia. The entire vertical of power, starting with the People's Commissariats and ending with the Soviet authorities, becomes completely under the control of the Bolsheviks. The Central Committee of the Party determines the external and internal politics countries during that period. The weight of the party leadership at all levels, which relies on a powerful repressive apparatus, is growing. The Red Army and the Cheka are becoming instruments of the party's forceful influence on social and public sentiments in civil society. The competence of the communist leadership includes the military industry, the country's economy, education, culture and foreign policy, which was under the jurisdiction of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee.
Communist ideas to create a workers' and peasants' state were realized in 1922, when the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was formed in place of Soviet Russia. The next step in the transformation of the Communist Party was the XIV Party Congress, which decided to rename the organization into the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. The name of the VKP(b) party lasted 27 years, after which the new name of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union was approved as the final version.
The main reason for changing the name of the Communist Party was the growing weight of the Soviet Union in the political arena. Victory in the Great Patriotic War and economic achievements made the USSR a leading world power. The main governing force of the country needed a more respectable and sonorous name. Moreover, the political necessity to divide the communist movement into Bolsheviks and Mensheviks disappeared. The entire party structure and political lines were geared towards the main idea, the building of a communist society in the USSR.
The political structure of the CPSU
The first in the post-war period was the 19th Party Congress, convened after a long 13-year break. Stalin, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, delivered a speech at the forum. This was his last public appearance. It was at this congress that the main directions for the future political and economic structure of the country in the post-war period were adopted, and a course was outlined in the domestic and foreign policy of the Communist Party. The Communists, represented by all sections of Soviet society, gathered at the 19th Party Congress, unanimously supported the proposal of the party leadership to amend the party Charter. The idea of changing the name of the party to the CPSU was met with the approval of the congress participants. The Party Charter again fixed the position of the first person of the party - the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
Note: It should be noted that apart from the party card, indicating membership in the party, there were no other insignia among the communists. Unofficially, it was customary to wear a badge - the banner of the CPSU, on which, together with the abbreviation of the CPSU and the face of V.I. Lenin depicted the main symbols of the Soviet state, the red banner and the crossed hammer and sickle. Over time, the badge of a participant in the next party congress and a participant in the CPSU conference becomes the official symbolism of the communist movement in the USSR.
The role of the Communist Party in the early 1950s for the USSR can hardly be overestimated. In addition to the fact that the party elite has been developing the domestic and foreign policy of the Soviet state throughout its existence, the organs of party power are present in all spheres of the life of the Soviet people. The party structure is built in such a way that in every body and organization, in production and in the cultural and public sphere, not a single decision is made without the participation and control of the party. The main tool for carrying out the party line in civil society is a member of the CPSU - a person who has unquestioned authority, high moral and strong-willed qualities. From several members, on the basis of industrial or professional identity, a primary party cell, the lowest party organ, is formed. Everything above is already profile and regional organizations that unite ordinary citizens on the ground according to an ideological principle.
The class composition was also reflected in the replenishment of the ranks of the party. Representing the interests of the ruling class, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union consisted of 55-60% representatives of the proletarian milieu and the Soviet peasantry. Moreover, the proportion of communists who left the working environment was always two or three times higher than the number of collective farmers. These quotas were tacitly approved back in the 20-30s. The remaining 40% accounted for representatives of the intelligentsia. Moreover, this quota has been preserved in modern times, when the urban population has rapidly increased in the country.
Party vertical
What is the CPSU in the new, post-war period? This is already a major Marxist party, whose political will and subsequent actions are aimed at creating the dominant position of the proletariat in the country. The General Secretaries of the Central Committee of the CPSU, as before, perform the functions of the top leadership of the country. The main governing body of the party, the Central Committee, was practically a government body in the USSR.
The congress was the highest party body of the party. Throughout history, 28 party congresses have taken place. The first 7 events were legal and semi-legal. From 1917 to 1925 party congresses were held annually. Further, the CPSU (b) gathered for congresses every two years. Since 1961, CPSU congresses have been held every 5 years. At a new stage, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union held 10 of its largest forums:
- XIX Congress of the CPSU in 1952;
- XX - 1956;
- XXI - 1959;
- XXII Congress - 1961;
- XXIII - 1966;
- XXIV -1971;
- XXV Congress - 1976;
- XXVI -1981;
- XXVII Congress - 1986;
- last XXVIII congress - 1990
Decisions and resolutions adopted at the congresses were fundamental for subsequent decisions of the Central Committee, the Soviet government and other legislative and executive authorities. The composition of the Central Committee of the Central Committee was determined at the congress. In the period between congresses, the main work in the line of party administration was carried out by the Plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU. At the plenums, the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU was elected from among the members of the Presidium of the Central Committee. The plenums were attended not only by members of the highest Party bodies, but also by candidates for membership in the Central Committee. The authority to make decisions in the intervals between plenums lay entirely with the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, which consisted of members of the Central Committee. The newly created collegial body was entrusted with the administrative functions of managing the party and the country, which were previously assigned to another governing body - the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
A unique situation developed in the USSR, when the decisions of the party played the main role in the administration of the state. Neither the Council of Ministers, nor the relevant ministries, nor the Supreme Council adopted a single law without the approval of the party elite. All decisions, orders and resolutions of the Central Committee of the CPSU, decisions of the Plenum of the Central Committee tacitly had the force of legislative acts, on the basis of which the Council of Ministers had already acted. In modern times, this trend has not only been preserved, but also intensified. However, despite the total dominance in the political and public life countries of the communist party, it was required to make some changes to the structure of the party organization caused by new political trends and motives. The Central Committee and the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU in the period between plenums and congresses played the role of a shadow government.
After joining the Soviet state of the Baltic countries on the rights of the union republics, it was required to change the structure of the party along national and regional lines. Organizationally, the CPSU consisted of the communist parties of the union republics that are part of the Soviet Union, 14 instead of 15. Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic did not have its own party organization. The secretaries of the republican parties were members of the Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, which was a collegiate and advisory body.
Top party position
The structure of the top party leadership has always maintained a collective and collegial management style, however, the General Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee remained the most significant and iconic figure in the party Olympus.
It was the only non-collegiate position in the structure of the Communist Party. In terms of powers and rights, the first person in the party was the nominal Head of the Soviet state. Neither the Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, nor the Chairman of the Council of Ministers had such powers as the general secretaries had in the Soviet Union. In total, the political history of the Soviet state knew 6 General Secretaries. IN AND. Lenin, although he occupied the highest level in the party hierarchy, remained the nominal head of the Soviet government, holding the post of Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars.
The combination of the highest party position and the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars was continued by I.V. Stalin, who became head of the Soviet government in 1941. Further, after the death of the leader, the tradition of combining the highest party post with the highest executive power was continued by N. S. Khrushchev, who was the Head of the Soviet government. After the removal of Khrushchev from all posts, it was decided to formally separate the posts of General Secretary and Head of the Soviet government. The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU performs representative functions, while all executive power is vested in the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
The post of General Secretary after the death of Stalin was held by the following persons:
- N.S. Khrushchev - 1953-1964;
- L. I. Brezhnev - 1964-1982;
- Yu.V. Andropov - 1982-1984;
- K. U. Chernenko - 1984-1985;
- M.S. Gorbachev - 1985-1991
The last general secretary was M. S. Gorbachev, who, in parallel with the post of head of the party, held the post of Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and then became the first President of the USSR. The resolutions of the Central Committee of the CPSU from that moment are advisory in nature. The main emphasis in the leadership of the country is on the representation of power. The powers of the party leadership in governing the country in the domestic and foreign arena become limited.
Collegial governing bodies
The main feature of the activities of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is the collegiality of the management structure. Starting with V.I. Lenin, in the party leadership, the quorum plays an important role in decision-making. However, despite the apparent collectivity and collegiality in the management of the party, with the advent of J.S. Stalin to the highest party posts, a transition to an authoritarian style of management is planned. Only with the advent of the post of General Secretary N. S. Khrushchev again there is a return to the collegial style of management. The Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU again becomes the highest party body, making decisions and responsible for the implementation of the program points adopted at the plenums and congresses.
The role of this body in the management of public affairs is gradually growing. Considering that all leading positions in the Soviet state were occupied only by members of the CPSU, it can be said that the entire party elite is represented in the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, possessing full power. In addition to the General Secretary, the Bureau included the secretaries of the republican Central Committee of the party, the first secretaries of the Moscow and Leningrad regional committees, the Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Council and the Supreme Soviet of the RSFRS. As representatives of the executive power, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU necessarily included the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, the Minister of Defense of the USSR, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Head of the State Security Committee.
This trend in the management system continued until the very last days the existence of the Soviet Union. After the last 28th Party Congress, a split appeared in the Communist Party. With the introduction in 1990 of the post of President of the USSR, the role of the Politburo in the management of state affairs has declined sharply. Already in March 1990, Article 6 was excluded from the Constitution of the USSR, which fixed the leading role of the CPSU in managing state affairs. At the last congress, the hegemony of the Communist Party in the life of the country was put to an end. Inside the party itself high level a split emerged. Several factions appeared at once, each of which preached its own point of view regarding the subsequent fate of the party, its place in the country's leadership.
The resolutions of the Central Committee of the CPSU are already in the form of intra-party circulars, which indirectly reflect the main directions of the work of the Soviet government. Since 1990, the party has been losing control over the country's governance system. The activity of the President of the USSR, the functions of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Cabinet of Ministers of the USSR become defining and decisive in the life of the state. The collapse of the USSR as a single state put an end to the existence of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as a major organizational political force.
Today, only party banners, surviving party tickets and badges of party congresses remind us of the former greatness of the Communist Party, which remained at the helm of the state for 72 years. According to statistics, as of January 1, 1991, there were 16.5 million members and candidates in the ranks of the CPSU. This is the largest figure for political parties in the world, except for the numerical strength of the Communist Party of China.
In 1917-1991, the Communist Party was the ruling party in our country. Moreover, it was a state-forming structure.
The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU, VKP (b)) is the only (from the mid-20s of the XX century until 1991) political party in the USSR.
Congress of the CPSU - according to the charters of the Communist Party, the highest body of leadership of the party, regularly convened meetings of its delegates. A total of 28 congresses were held, counting back from the first congress of the RSDLP in Minsk in 1898. After the October Revolution in 1917-25, congresses were held annually, then less regularly before the war; the longest break is between the 18th and 19th Congresses (13 years, 1939-52). In 1961-1986 they were held every 5 years. The last, XXVIII Congress of the CPSU as the ruling party was in 1990.
XXVIII Congress of the CPSU - the last Congress of the CPSU before its abolition in 1991, was held in 1990, July 2-13. The only one after the Great Patriotic War congress, which was preceded by a party conference (XIX Conference of the CPSU, 1988). Unlike previous congresses of the CPSU since the time of Stalin, at the congress not everyone voted unanimously "for" and there were discussions. For the first time, the Central Committee of the CPSU was elected without candidate members, only from members.
Due to internal disagreements, the congress failed to approve the Program of the CPSU.
The congress revealed a deep crisis in the party: although the conservatives were in the minority at the congress, the supporters of the reforms no longer wanted to associate their policies with the CPSU. Right at the congress, Boris N. Yeltsin and some of his other like-minded people left the party. Despite the formal victory at the congress of M.S. Gorbachev (in particular, his supporter V.A. Ivashko was elected to the post of Deputy General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU for the first time), from that moment he begins to lose leverage in the party. After the Congress, at the plenums of the Central Committee of the CPSU, sharp criticism was repeatedly voiced against him and even the question of his resignation was raised. At the same time, a number of former prominent functionaries of the CPSU (E. Shevardnadze, A. Yakovlev) already in 1991 began to create an alternative party. The process of turning the republican communist parties into parties actually independent of the CPSU began even earlier, with the events of 1989 in Lithuania.
The Central Committee Plenum held at the end of the 28th Congress of the CPSU (13-14 July 1990) elected the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, also for the first time without candidates for membership. None of the former members entered the Politburo, with the exception of Gorbachev and Ivashko. 24 people were elected members, born in 1926-1945. 19 of them remained members of the Politburo at the time of the abolition of the CPSU. Some members of the Central Committee of the CPSU (A. Gelman, A. Yakovlev and others) left the party or were expelled from it even before the formal ban on the CPSU in August 1991.
In 1992, the restoration XXIX Congress of the UCP-CPSU (the union of representatives of the communist parties of the former USSR) headed by Oleg Shenin was held, and then subsequent ones, but the authority of these congresses is not recognized by all communists.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is the highest party body between party congresses. The record number of members of the Central Committee of the CPSU (412 members) was elected at the XXVIII Congress of the CPSU (1990). At the Plenums of the Central Committee, he elected the Politburo (Presidium), the Secretariat and the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee, the Party Control Commission (1934-90).
The Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU was the highest party body that directed the political work of the Central Committee between its Plenums. It acted as a permanent body after the 7th Congress of the RCP(b). Resolved the most important political, economic and internal party issues.
From 1952 to 1966 it was called the "Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU".
Theoretically, the Politburo was elected at the plenums of the Central Committee of the CPSU, but in practice it was elected after the congresses of the CPSU. (Until 1991 there were 28 congresses).
The Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU included members of the Politburo, candidate members of the Politburo, and secretaries of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
The Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU consisted of 10 (in the 1920s) to 25 (in the 1970s) members. As a rule, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU included:
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU,
chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR,
Chairmen of the Presidiums of the Supreme Soviets of the USSR and the Russian Federation,
ministers of defense and foreign affairs,
first secretaries of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine,
Moscow and/or Leningrad GK CPSU.
Under Khrushchev, the Presidium of the Central Committee began to include the 1st secretaries of some republican communist parties (the tradition was preserved later), and in 1990-1991 the Politburo included the 1st secretaries of all republican Central Committees (including 2 Communist Parties at once) Estonia).
Secretariat of the Central Committee
It consisted only of the secretaries of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
In 1990, 5 members of the Secretariat were introduced who were not secretaries of the Central Committee of the CPSU.
Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee
This body existed in 1919-52, but actually duplicated the activities of the Secretariat and for this reason did not play a real role.
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU
In 1918-19 - Chairman of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), in 1919-22 - Executive Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), in 1953-66 - First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU
Prior to the appointment of I.V. Stalin (1922), the position of executive secretary of the Central Committee was purely technical and not related to the party leadership. However, already a few years before this, the practice had developed that the (responsible) secretaries of local party committees were their leaders.
1918-19 - Yakov Mikhailovich Sverdlov
1919 - Elena Dmitrievna Stasova
1919-21 - Nikolai Nikolaevich Krestinsky
1921-22 - Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov
1922-52 - Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (Dzhugashvili).
In 1934, the post of general secretary was abolished by the decision of the XVII Congress of the CPSU (b), and all secretaries of the Central Committee formally became equal. However, this decision was not implemented in practice. In 1952-1953, also formally, none of the secretaries of the Central Committee was the "first", and the meetings of the Politburo and the Central Committee were chaired by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.
1953-64 - Nikita Sergeevich Khrushchev.
1964-82 - Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev.
1982-84 - Yuri Vladimirovich Andropov.
1984-85 - Konstantin Ustinovich Chernenko.
1985-91 - Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev.
Central Control Commission of the CPSU
The Central Control Commission (CCC) of the CPSU was elected at CPSU congresses, just like the Central Committee. Its record-breaking membership (about 120) was elected at the 15th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in December 1925. Then the plenums of the Central Control Commission elected the Presidium of the Central Control Commission. At the 19th Congress of the CPSU (1952), a record low number (37) of members of the Central Control Commission was elected to the Central Control Commission. At the plenums of the Central Control Commission, the Presidium of the Central Control Commission was no longer elected. However, at the 28th Congress of the CPSU (1990), many members were again elected to the Central Control Commission. The 1st Plenum of the Central Control Commission elected its Presidium again. And since April 1991, the Presidium of the Central Control Commission had its own bureau.
General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU, unofficially Secretary General (in 1922-1952 of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, in 1953-1966 First Secretary) - the highest position in the party bodies of the Soviet Union.
Introduced in 1922 and initially had a less important, rather technical character; I. V. Stalin was elected to this post, who by the end of the 1920s had concentrated absolute power in the country in his hands; since that time, the words "Secretary General" and "head of state" have actually become synonymous. After the 17th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (1934), Stalin did not use this title (signing “Secretary of the Central Committee”), although he formally retained it until the 19th Congress of the CPSU (1952). As a result of changes in the leadership of the party adopted at this congress, the post of general secretary was abolished.
On September 13, 1953, the post of First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party was established, to which N. S. Khrushchev was elected. At the XXIII Congress of the CPSU, held under Brezhnev, in 1966, the names used before 1952 were restored: “General Secretary” instead of “First Secretary” and “Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee” instead of “Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee”.
The post of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU existed until 1991 and ceased to exist simultaneously with the suspension of the party.
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