XVIII Congress of the CPSU (b). I. Stalin. Report on the work of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks at the 18th Party Congress Speech by Voroshilov at the 18th Party Congress

Drywall 18.04.2021

In July 1930, amid a massive outflow of peasants from collective farms, extreme tension in the national economy and a sharp drop in living standards in the city and countryside, the 16th Party Congress was opened.

On the eve of the congress, the idea of carrying out a "palace coup" against Stalin was hatched among the "rightists", but their leaders at illegal factional conferences resolutely rejected this path. According to Avtorkhanov, a group of "activists" gathered on the eve of the congress, who had long demanded from their leaders energetic actions to overthrow Stalin. Referring to the bankruptcy of Stalin's policy and peasant revolts, they directly put the question to Bukharin, who was invited to the meeting: "When life has confirmed your darkest predictions in all branches of domestic policy, and the peasants, driven to despair, voted for you with their blood, really after all this are you going to vote for Stalin at the 16th Congress? " Bukharin replied evasively that the attacks against the Stalinists from above had not been crowned with success, and therefore the party's line could only be straightened from below. One of the "activists" to this said that membership cards of the lower classes are powerless against the apparatus, therefore, only "surgery" remains in the arsenal of means of struggle. In response, Bukharin began to argue at length that the ideals of socialism and social justice, in the name of which the revolution had been accomplished, could not be sacrificed to the intergroup struggle at the top of the party. He ended his speech with sophistry: "The inept control of a magnificent car does not at all speak about the vices of the machine itself. It is absurd to crash this car, just to remove the driver."

Despite the factual departure of the "troika" from the political struggle, Stalin did not manage to avoid the pre-Congress discussion, which in some party organizations grew into support of the "right." This was the case, for example, in the Industrial Academy, where the party cell was headed by representatives of the "old guard" who held an anti-Stalinist position. This group was opposed by a minority group of young party members who "stood in the positions of the Central Committee", to which Khrushchev belonged. The severity of the struggle was expressed, in particular, in the fact that Khrushchev was several times failed in the elections to the presidium of party meetings and to the bureau of the party cell. Despite a number of speeches by Pravda about the "dominance of the right" in the Industrial Academy, at its party meeting Bukharin and Rykov were elected as delegates to the regional conference along with Stalin. After that, Mekhlis summoned Khrushchev to Pravda and invited him to sign an article prepared in the editorial office criticizing the "unhealthy situation" in the Party organization of the Industrial Academy. The day after the article was published, a new party meeting was held, at which all the previously elected delegates, except Stalin, were recalled, and "supporters of the general line" were elected to the district conference, including Khrushchev, who became the secretary of the party organization of the academy. At a regional conference, Khrushchev said that "the election of the" rightists "was a trick of the former party leadership of the academy, which sympathized with the" rightists, "and now it has been deprived of confidence and has been re-elected." These events determined the further fate of Khrushchev. Already in January 1931, he was elected secretary of the Bauman district party committee, after which he began his rapid ascent up the steps of the party hierarchy.

Khrushchev also recalled that the pre-congress Bauman regional conference was very stormy. NK Krupskaya spoke at it, whose speech was "not in time with the general line of the party," for which the conference condemned her speech.

Quite a few letters condemning Stalin came to the editorial board of Pravda. Most of them, of course, were shelved. However, separate letters protesting against the blame for the "excesses" on the "switchmen" nevertheless appeared on the pages of Pravda. So, Mamaev's article said: "Who was dizzy? .. We decide one thing, but in fact we carry out another. So there is nothing to cast a shadow on a clear day. We must say about our own shooting and not teach this to the grassroots party masses ... It turns out , "The tsar is good, but the local officials are worthless ..." It is necessary to check the causes of excesses under Lenin's microscope and not punish the obedient performers - rural communists for them. "

However, this kind of sentiment was not reflected at the congress itself, which, as will be typical of all subsequent party congresses, was distinguished by an extremely upbeat tone. In particular, the speech of the oldest party historian M. Pokrovsky, who regarded forced industrialization and collectivization as an indicator of "the country's entry into socialism", was sustained in this tone. “In 1921, I had to hear the forecast:“ Oh, for another 25 years, an intermediate position will be enough for us, in another 25 years we will build socialism, ”he said. Do I have enough authority for this, but on behalf of my entire generation I would like to express gratitude to everyone who is building socialism (Krzhizhanovsky: You can, you can! Continuous thunderous applause). "

Stalin's report spoke of the "gigantic successes" of industrialization and collectivization, of the correctness and victory of the "general line of the party." At the same time, as indicated in the Ryutin Platform, Stalin kept silent about two decisive facts that nullified all his ceremonial reports. First, he "hid from the party that at that time the entire textile industry with 600 thousand workers, due to the lack of raw materials, stood for 4 months entirely, a number of other branches of light industry, as well as hundreds of heavy enterprises, half. " Secondly, he did not say a word about the wave of unprecedented peasant uprisings that had just passed throughout the country.

In terms of the intensity of criticism of the opposition, the 16th congress was extremely similar to the previous congress, with the only difference that now it was not a question of “finishing off” the formed opposition, which continued to defend its views, but about finishing off “deviators”, none of whom said a word in defense of his views, and even more so - did not dare to criticize the adventurous Stalinist course, which took on especially dangerous forms and proportions after the surrender of the Bukharin group.

When discussing the political report of the Central Committee, the main attention was paid not to the analysis of extremely aggravated economic and socio-political problems, but to unrestrained attacks on the leaders of the "right-wing opposition." Kirov demanded that they recognize their platform as a "kulak program" leading to the death of socialist construction, and declared that "every extra percentage of the rate in our industrialization, every extra collective farm - all this was achieved not only in the struggle against the kulak and other counter-revolutionary elements. in our country, this was achieved in the struggle against Comrades Bukharin, Rykov, Tomsky and Uglanov. " "It is impossible, comrades, without a shudder to think about what would have happened to the proletarian revolution, to the working class, if the line of the Rights had won," Kosarev exclaimed pathetically. “You repented at the November plenum, repented yesterday, and beyond that nothing else was done by you,” Rudzutak reproached the “rightists”. For the first time he publicly reported at the congress about the negotiations between Bukharin and Kamenev, describing them as "a conspiracy against the Central Committee."

The completely demoralized "rightists" seemed to compete with each other in admitting their "mistakes", trying to refute only the most odious accusations. Denying the existence of a "faction" among the Rights, Tomsky nevertheless admitted that their activities carried "the germs of factionalism": of course, there are already elements of factionalism here. " In response to the demand to repent, Tomsky declared that "repentance" was not a Bolshevik term, and said with bitterness: "It is difficult to be in the role of a continuously repentant person. Some comrades have such sentiments - repent, repent without end, and only repent ... Give do a little work. "

The leaders of the "Right Opposition" had to fully experience the methods that they, together with Stalin, used against the previous oppositions. To prove their "factional activity" information obtained through denunciations was cited. Former MK M. Penkov spoke in detail about the "factional work" in the Moscow organization, claiming that "the leaders of the right opposition urged us to start our work as soon as possible, to mobilize party organizations, party and workers masses as soon as possible. Separate comrades were sent for processing to Comrade Bukharin so that this oppositional work is more fruitful. "

In the organizing report of the Central Committee, Kaganovich stated that "Uglanov is still working against the Central Committee ... to this day he is still working people quietly, secretly, against the Central Committee of the party." In response to this accusation, Uglanov the next day "quite frankly" admitted that in recent months he again had serious doubts about the correctness of the policy in the countryside, which he shared with some of his comrades. Since Uglanov kept silent about the most "criminal" moment of these conversations, he was bombarded with new accusations of the lack of agreement in his confessions. After that, Uglanov sent a statement to the Presidium of the Congress, which said: "In the struggle against the party line, I tried, in conversations with many party members, to present the main culprit for the current situation in the party, Comrade Stalin. I consider this my grave mistake. Comrade Stalin showed in his leadership of the party, that he is deservedly the leader of the party. "

If at the 15th Congress the replicas from the seats during the speeches of the opposition were aimed at preventing them from expressing their arguments, now such remarks were thrown with the aim of getting even more humiliation from the "right". This happened not only during the speeches of Rykov, Tomsky and Uglanov (Bukharin was absent from the congress due to illness), but also during the speech of Krupskaya, which was interrupted more than once by shouts: "About Rykov and Tomsky", "Little, tell me more precisely", "Don't clear "," Extremely not enough ".

Stalin's closest associates more than once varied in their speeches Mikoyan's idea that the right-wingers were "beaten a little." Voroshilov even talked about the "angelic patience shown by all members of the Politburo in relation to Bukharin, Tomsky and Rykov," which "did not work for the future," and assured that "Lenin had a hundred times greater rigidity and strength of his hand than Stalin, who is next to accuse of rigidity. "

Since the "right", under the threat of even more fierce persecution, could not answer essentially any accusation against them, they had to silently listen to the most fantastic and contradictory versions of the evolution of their views. Thus, Voroshilov explained their "fall into sin" not by a protest against the breakup of the Stalinist group with the previous policy pursued jointly with the Bukharinites, but by the fact that "fighting Trotsky-Zinoviev, the rightists thought that the entire Leninist party had adopted an openly right-wing program, that it had "Left" opportunists will take a new - the right path ... Literally on the second day after the 15th Congress Rykov, Tomsky and Bukharin showed their true faces, began to rule in front of our eyes and oppose the policy of the Central Committee (especially on the issue of grain procurements). "

In contrast to this version of the "correction" of the Bukharin group, Pokrovsky declared that "the right deviation is a worldview that we can trace even in our literature very deeply." He reproached Bukharin and his disciples for the fact that since 1924 they proved that "our peasant does not have a sense of ownership, that he never owned land, that he, in short, a socialist without five minutes, why then collectivization, he himself grows in. " The venerable historian did not consider it necessary to explain why, in this case, such views during the five years preceding the "great turning point" constituted the theoretical credo of the party leadership, and the "Bukharin school" was under his protection from criticism from the left opposition

On the whole, the speakers at the 16th Congress cared little about the logical consistency of arguments. Any argument turned out to be useful if with its help it was possible to hit harder on the already capitulated opposition. Absolute unity was manifested only in the "defense" of Stalin from the accusations that spread among the "right".

Yaroslavsky denounced Bukharin and his supporters for "systematically discrediting Comrade Stalin from day to day." For the first time promulgating a provision from the February declaration of the "troika", which contained a protest against the idea that "control by the collective should be replaced by control by a person, even an authoritative one," Rudzutak stated that in this provision "there is not only a protest against the regime existing in the party. , but there is ... direct slander against Comrade Stalin, against whom they are trying to bring charges of trying to lead our party solely. we cannot cite a single example, not a single case, that he tried to oppose his will and his opinion to the opinion of the majority of the Central Committee, the opinion of the collective. "

The criticism of Stalin by the right was seen as evidence of their transition to the position of Trotsky. "Do you remember," Ordzhonikidze said, "how Trotsky hounded Stalin. It literally boiled down to the fact that Stalin was to blame for all the differences, for the whole struggle ... What did the rightists do in this regard? I will not quote, but I will say - literally in the same way, in the same words - they attacked Comrade Stalin, as Trotsky did in his time. " “Our party and the working class,” continued Ordzhonikidze, “quite correctly identify Comrade Stalin with the general line of our Party, leading the USSR from victory to victories. It is for this that the Party welcomes Comrade Stalin with such enthusiasm and enthusiasm (Applause). This is not understand neither Trotsky, nor Bukharin, nor Rykov and nor Tomsky. "

Recalling that Zinoviev and Kamenev "began with accusations of the Central Committee and Comrade Stalin of half-Trotskyism, and ended with an amnesty, a bloc with Trotsky to fight against the party, against the Central Committee," Postyshev suggested, "Does the silence of the right on the question of Trotsky's capitulation platform mean in essence, a kind of amnesty for Trotsky to conclude a bloc with him? " ... In these and similar speeches, criticism of Stalin was identified with criticism of the Central Committee and the "general line of the party" and at the same time a concentrated "image of the enemy" - Trotsky and "Trotskyism" was consolidated, to which all opposition elements of the party were exposed. The tactics of creating this “image of the enemy”, worked out already in the 1920s, made it possible to hide real socio-economic problems behind crude political abuse.

Although speeches at the 16th congress did not end with toasts in honor of Stalin (this will happen at the next congress), most of the greetings and reports to the congress, drawn up by helpful apparatchiks, included a formula that had not been used at previous congresses about Stalin as the "leader of the party."

Another innovation tested at the 16th Congress was the distribution to the delegates of the confessions obtained by the GPU of the arrested "saboteurs" from among the non-party scientists and engineers. This testimony was quoted in a number of speeches to prove that "all specialists eagerly listened to all disagreements in the party and, no matter what deviation the opposition had, they always wished it success."

At the 16th Congress, a line on "tightening the screws" along the entire "ideological front" clearly emerged. For example, Kaganovich expressed his indignation at the publication of seven books by the "obscurantist philosopher" Losev and especially "the last book of this reactionary and Black Hundred man" "Dialectics of Myth" (By this time Losev was already in the Solovetsky camp). The accusation of Losev of "openly Black-Hundred monarchist statements" was repeated by the writer Kirshon. He also accused the Pereval literary group that it "in response to the slogan of liquidating the kulaks as a class, puts forward the slogan of humanism and philanthropy."

The political meaning of the XVI Congress was revealed in the article by X. Rakovsky "At the Congress and in the Country", written in July-August 1930. "The task of the 16th Congress," wrote Rakovsky, "was to consolidate with its authority the organized" achievements "of the Stalinist faction, to consolidate the apparatus over the party, the Stalinist group over the apparatus and Stalin himself, as a recognized leader who crowns the entire apparatus on the neck of the party ... This congress was one of the most important stages along the path of further (if possible) bonapartisation of the party. Not only the party has been removed from the solution of political issues, but it does not trust the carefully filtered and selected congress. the number of a general line devoid of any specific content can mean nothing more than the equally unconditional approval in advance of any policy, any turn in any direction. " As the entire subsequent experience of the country's development has shown, such a blind approval of common "lines" ("building communism at 20 years old" under Khrushchev, "improving developed socialism" under Brezhnev, Gorbachev's "perestroika" or Yeltsin's "policy of reform") was a socio-psychological a mechanism for the approval of authoritarian power, which tends to grow into totalitarianism, dictatorial forms of government.

Rakovsky noted that for the future historian the best illustration of the mores of the "era of reconstruction" would be the minutes of the 16th Congress. They depict "a worthy symbol of the entire modern regime" - "a wild picture of unbelievable bureaucrats and apparatchiks competing in hooting and mockery of the enemy (right) who is pressed against the wall and surrendered weapons ... The most disgusting thing here is that this is a competition in vile relation to a sinner crawling on his belly is the price paid by officials for their own well-being: for whom there are no sinners, who is guaranteed that tomorrow they will not be made an atoning sacrifice in order to preserve the prestige of the general line? - whether in those who obediently bowed their heads under whistles and hooting and ignored insults in the hope of a better future, or in those who also inflicted these insults in the hope of a better future, knowing in advance that the enemy would retreat. at the Fifteenth Congress the apparatchiks could not afford this. Something serious is happening, that the party is going through some kind of tragedy. Now they tried to repeat the same in relation to the right, but the second time turned out, as always happens, a vulgar farce. " - the opposition, which has abandoned organizational design, is already broken and incapable of any resistance.

An interesting assessment of the international situation and the international situation Soviet Union contained in Stalin's report at the eighteenth party congress six months before the outbreak of World War II. This report is called

"Report on the work of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks at the 18th Party Congress on March 10, 1939". Its full version is contained in the 14th volume of the collected works of I. V. Stalin. The place of interest to us is contained in Section 1. The international situation of the Soviet Union.

“A characteristic feature of the new imperialist war is that it has not yet become a general, world war. The war is waged by the aggressor states, in every possible way infringing on the interests of non-aggressive states, primarily England, France, and the United States, while the latter retreat and retreat, giving the aggressors concession after concession.

Thus, before our eyes, there is an open redistribution of the world and spheres of influence at the expense of the interests of non-aggressive states without any attempts to resist and even with some connivance on the part of the latter.

Unbelievable but true.

How can such a one-sided and strange character of the new imperialist war be explained?

How could it happen that non-aggressive countries with enormous opportunities so easily and without resistance abandoned their positions and obligations to please the aggressors?

Is this not due to the weakness of non-aggressive states? Of course not! Non-aggressive, democratic states, taken together, are indisputably stronger than fascist states both economically and militarily.

How, then, can we explain the systematic concessions of these states to the aggressors?

This could be explained, for example, by a feeling of fear of a revolution that could play out if non-aggressive states enter the war and the war takes on a world character. Bourgeois politicians, of course, know that the first imperialist world war brought victory to the revolution in one of the largest countries. They fear that the second imperialist world war may also lead to the victory of the revolution in one or several countries.

But this is not the only and not even the main reason now. The main reason lies in the refusal of the majority of non-aggressive countries, primarily England and France, from the policy of collective resistance to the aggressors, in their transition to a position of non-interference, to a position of "neutrality."

Formally, the policy of non-intervention could be characterized as follows: "Let each country defend itself from the aggressors as it wants and how it can, our business is the side, we will trade with the aggressors and their victims." In reality, however, the policy of non-interference means conniving at aggression, unleashing a war, and therefore turning it into a world war. "

Describing the international situation before the delegates to the congress, Stalin points out that a general world war has not yet begun, but it is not far off. Before that, he said that this is an imperialist war, which begins for the redistribution of zones of influence and sales markets. Here he draws attention to the fact that supposedly "non-aggressive" democracies such as England, France and the United States are constantly making concessions to the aggressive bloc of Germany, Italy and Japan. And, as we can see, he asks a question about the reasons for such compliance. It was obvious to Stalin that this compliance and the policy of appeasement could in no way be explained by the weakness of these states, since in economic terms, in terms of industrial development, Britain and the United States were significantly ahead of the Axis countries. In addition, the German economy was still constantly credited by the West, mainly by the United States. That is why Stalin declared to the delegates of the congress that this "give-away game" could not be explained by this. But since the West still makes concessions, moreover, mainly in matters of the eastern territories and Germany is constantly strengthening, Stalin points out another possible reason - the fear of a communist revolution. In fear of it, the West is ready to make any concessions, just to be able to organize a rebuff in Europe to a possible expansion of the revolutionary movement. And then the most interesting thing follows!

“The policy of non-interference shows a desire, a desire not to prevent the aggressors from doing their dirty deed, not to prevent, say, Japan from getting involved in a war with China, or even better with the Soviet Union, not to prevent, say, Germany from getting bogged down in European affairs, getting involved in a war with The Soviet Union, to let all the participants in the war sink deep into the mud of the war, to encourage them in this on the sly, to let them weaken and exhaust each other, and then, when they are sufficiently weak, to appear on the stage with fresh forces - to act, of course, “in the interests of peace ”And dictate their conditions to the weakened participants in the war.

And cheap and cute! "

As we know from history, almost everything happened. The West was in no hurry to fight fascism, landed in Normandy only in 44, and now it is spinning the myth about the salvation of Europe not only from Nazism, but also from Bolshevism.

Of course, with this statement, Stalin not only wanted to explain to the delegates what was happening in the world and what the policy of "non-intervention" by Great Britain and the United States was, but also let the West know, on the one hand, that he understood their intentions, and on the other hand, Germany and the Nazi leadership what awaits them at the end, when they play their part and the West no longer needs them. Actually, it became clear to Hitler even without Stalin's prompts, and as he grew stronger, he began to strive to change the script written for him in the West.

Also interesting are the examples that Stalin cites as evidence of his theses.

“Take Japan, for example. It is characteristic that before the start of Japan's invasion of North China, all influential French and English newspapers loudly shouted about China's weakness, its inability to resist, and that Japan with its army could conquer China in two or three months. Then the European-American politicians began to wait and watch. And then, when Japan launched hostilities, they ceded Shanghai - the heart of foreign capital in China, ceded Canton - a hotbed of British monopoly influence in South China, ceded Hainan, allowed Hong Kong to be encircled. Isn't it all very similar to encouraging the aggressor: they say, get further into the war, and then we'll see.

Or, for example, take Germany. They conceded Austria to her, despite the obligation to defend her independence, ceded the Sudetenland, abandoned Czechoslovakia to the mercy of fate, violating all and “Riots” in the Soviet Union, pushing the Germans further east, promising them easy prey and saying: just start a war with the Bolsheviks, and then everything will go well. It must be admitted that this is also very similar to pushing, to encouraging the aggressor.

The clamor raised by the Anglo-French and North American press about the Soviet Ukraine is characteristic. The workers of this press shouted hoarsely that the Germans were going to Soviet Ukraine, that they now have in their hands the so-called Carpathian Ukraine, with a population of about 700 thousand, that the Germans, no later than this spring, will annex Soviet Ukraine, which has more than 30 million, to the so-called Carpathian Ukraine. It seems that this suspicious noise was intended to raise the anger of the Soviet Union against Germany, to poison the atmosphere and provoke a conflict with Germany for no apparent reason.

It is even more characteristic that some politicians and media figures in Europe and the United States, having lost patience in anticipation of a "march on Soviet Ukraine," themselves begin to expose the real underlying motives of the policy of non-intervention. They directly say and write in black and white that the Germans severely “disappointed” them, because instead of moving further east, against the Soviet Union, you see, they turned west and demand colonies for themselves. You might think that the Germans were given the regions of Czechoslovakia as a price for their obligation to start a war with the Soviet Union, and the Germans are now refusing to pay the bill, sending them somewhere far away. "

Stalin points out that after the Munich Agreement of September 30, 1938, which led to the transfer of the Sudetenland to Germany, a campaign was launched in the Western press to diminish the capabilities of the Red Army. This was necessary to encourage Hitler in further plans to seize Czechoslovakia.

But as you know, Hitler did not dare to direct aggression against Czechoslovakia. The fact is that then treaties with France and the Soviet Union to provide assistance to Czechoslovakia entered into force. But these agreements had no effect in the event of the internal disintegration of Czechoslovakia. Therefore, immediately after the occupation of the Sudetenland, the nationalists of Slovakia and Subcarpathian Rus suddenly felt a craving for freedom and wanted autonomy. Already on October 6, 1938, at a meeting of representatives of the SNP, the Agrarian, National Socialist, Crafts and People's Parties of Slovakia, a decision was made to create an autonomous republic of Slovakia and transfer power in Slovakia to the government of J. Tiso. And in Transcarpathia on October 8, they adopted a memorandum on the autonomy of the region and formed the government of Subcarpathian Rus, headed by the head of the Autonomous Agricultural Union A. Brodiy. On October 11, 1938, Hitler instructed Ribbentrop to work out a further plan for isolating Czechoslovakia so that nothing would interfere with the process of the disintegration of Czechoslovakia. But it was necessary to insure himself in case, nevertheless, it would not be possible to seize Czechoslovakia by peaceful means. Therefore, Hitler, on the one hand, gives orders to Chief of General Staff Keitel to develop a plan for the final liquidation of the Czech Republic, and on the other hand, he wants to prevent possible intervention in the conflict of the Soviet Union. For this, on November 2, 1938, the so-called "Vienna Arbitration" took place, which transferred the southern regions of Slovakia and part of Transcarpathia with cities to Hungary Uzhgorod, Mukachevo and Beregovo. This move was calculated on the fact that if the Soviet Union still decides to provide assistance to Czechoslovakia, even without France entering the war, it will have to come into conflict with Poland and Hungary in order to transfer troops to Czechoslovakia. The fact that this was the meaning of the transfer of Subcarpathian Rus to Hungary was directly statedState Secretary of the German Ministry of Foreign AffairsWeizsacker Soviet Chargé d'Affaires in Berlin G. Astakhov 05/30/1939, indicating that Germany, having abandoned the Transcarpathian Ukraine, this removed the pretext for war and there is an opportunity to improve Soviet-German relations.

We also see that Stalin in his report points to the demagogy in the Western press concerning Subcarpathian Rus (which was urgently renamed Carpathian Ukraine), the meaning of which was the need to cause a separate movement in Ukraine in order to secede from the Soviet Union.

It should be noted that Stalin delivered this speech on March 10, 1939. At that moment, it was not yet known how exactly Czechoslovakia would be dismembered. German troops will enter the Czech Republic only on March 15, 1939. But the Western press was already making plans to create a nationalist movement in Ukraine. Moreover, the press is also outraged that Hitler is demanding colonies and bargaining instead. to go further east. Contrary to the expectations of the West, Hitler did not occupy Slovakia either, but signed an alliance agreement with Slovakia. He also gave Hungary and Subcarpathian Rus. On March 12, A. Hitler informed the regent of Hungary, Admiral Horthy, that Germany would not interfere with the Hungarian occupation of the Czechoslovak Transcarpathia. By March 18, 1939, Hungarian troops occupied this territory. Only after this did a note of protest from England and France on March 17, 1939 appear. In fact, it was not a protest against the occupation of the Czech Republic, but against the indecision of Hitler, who did not begin to seize Slovakia and Transcarpathia. Hitler seized new territory and weapons that could provide 40 divisions, but there is nowhere to use it. And strategists from London had to develop new plans and make further concessions to Hitler in order to unleash a war with the Soviet Union.

And already on March 21, Hitler's memorandum appeared demanding the return of Danzig, and on April 4, Hitler ordered the development of the Weiss plan for the capture of Poland.

But no matter how hard Hitler tried to rewrite the scenario of a future war, its ending was already determined and unchanged, as Stalin had predicted. In the end, the democrats-peacekeepers appear on a white horse and carry on their bayonets "freedom" to Europe, and for one thing and its conditions and the amount of reparations and indemnities.

Beria. Comrades! Our glorious party of Bolsheviks came to its XVIII Congress powerful, united, monolithic, tightly rallied around its leader, the great Stalin.

In his report, Comrade Stalin summed up the results of the world-historic victories of socialism in our country and outlined the paths of our further victorious movement forward towards communism. The Bolshevik Party, all the peoples of the Soviet Union can rightfully be proud of the victories won under the wise leadership of Comrade Stalin.

Our country has become powerful, rich and cultural. Our people began to live a free, happy and joyful life. For the first time in the history of mankind, a new society has been built in which the exploiting classes have been eliminated, the exploitation of man by man has been abolished, and the working people are the sovereign masters of all material and cultural wealth.

Freed from oppression and exploitation * 2 *, lawlessness and poverty, the people revealed the creative powers hidden in their depths. Fearless heroes who performed remarkable feats for the glory of their homeland grew out of the midst of the people.

A truly popular, Soviet culture flourished. During the years of Soviet power, a huge army of intelligentsia has grown from the depths of the working class and peasantry, successfully mastering the foundations of the great teachings of Marx-Engels-Lenin-Stalin and boldly moving forward all areas of science and technology, art and literature.

Surrounded by the care and attention of the Party and the Soviet state, our intelligentsia - flesh of flesh and blood of the blood of the working people of our homeland - is imbued with an ardent feeling of Soviet patriotism, selflessly devoted to the cause of Lenin and Stalin.

On the basis of the new advanced technology, the Stakhanov movement developed, breaking old norms and raising the productivity of socialist labor to the highest level. The Bolshevik Party has trained and trained numerous cadres of party, Soviet and economic leaders who are selflessly devoted to the party of Lenin-Stalin and who are successfully mastering the art of Bolshevik leadership.

Unswervingly carrying out the wise instructions of Comrade Stalin to raise revolutionary vigilance, the Bolshevik Party, with the unanimous support of the entire people, defeated the main enemy nests of the Trotskyite-Bukharin and other saboteurs, saboteurs, murderers and spies of foreign intelligence services.

On the basis of the victory of socialism in the USSR, a moral and political unity of the Soviet people unprecedented in history was formed, the Stalinist friendship of the peoples of the USSR was strengthened. The Stalinist Constitution of victorious socialism raised the political activity and consciousness of the broadest masses of the working people even higher, and further strengthened the power of the soviets. The Soviet Union has become a powerful socialist power.

Our wise leader Comrade Stalin led our country to these victories. [Prolonged applause.]

The Bolshevik Party, all the working people of our homeland, with full right and pride, call all our victories - Stalin's victories. [Stormy applause.]

While the Land of Soviets is steadily and victoriously advancing towards a new flourishing of the economy and culture, poverty and unemployment are growing in the capitalist countries, and the crisis of the capitalist system is deepening. Our Bolshevik Congress charts and discusses great plans for further socialist construction, for an even greater rise in the material and cultural level of the working masses. In the capitalist countries, all the efforts of the rulers of the bourgeois states are aimed at unleashing a destructive imperialist slaughter.

The leaders of the capitalist states, gathering in Munich and Paris, London and Rome, weave the networks of a new aggressive war for the redivision of the world, conspire about the next victims of fascist aggression, deceive each other and betray the interests of the peoples. Entangled in internal and external contradictions, capitalism is looking for a way out in a further attack on the vital interests of the working people, in the intensification of exploitation and in war.

For more than two and a half years now, the combined forces of the Italo-German fascist interventionists, with the support of the so-called democratic states - England and France - have been tormenting the heroic Spanish people.

For about two years, the imperialist predator, Japan, with the connivance of other capitalist states, has been trying to enslave the great Chinese people and take away their independence and freedom. The struggle of the Chinese people against Japanese imperialism, for their freedom and independence, will serve as an instructive lesson and a formidable warning to all imperialist predators who, in the heat of their predatory aspirations, discount the great strength of the people. In a heroic struggle, the Chinese people overcome the past national fragmentation imposed by the feudal-militaristic generals, unite into a powerful, invincible force and inflict crushing blows on the enemy, thereby frustrating the plans of not only Japanese, but also the entire world imperialism. The admiration and sympathy of the entire Soviet people and the working people of the whole world are on the side of the freedom-loving, heroic Chinese people.

The diplomatic deals and machinations of the bourgeois-fascist governments are opposed by the Stalinist peace policy, firmly and unswervingly pursued by our Soviet state. The peaceful policy of the USSR exposes the designs of the imperialist states, frustrates their plans, arousing furious anger and hatred of the ruling classes of the capitalist countries towards the Soviet Union. The provocations of the enemies are smashed against the strength and might of our Soviet state.

Our socialist homeland is guarded by the invincible Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, the Red Navy, our glorious aviation, our Soviet intelligence. [Prolonged applause.]

Hasan's lessons should be remembered not only by Japanese generals, but also by all aggressors from the so-called anti-Comintern bloc. Comrades, great are our victories in all areas of the socialist economy and culture, but no less great are the tasks before us.

The fulfillment of the world-historical task set by Comrade Stalin for our party and our country - in the next 10-15 years to catch up and overtake the advanced capitalist countries of Europe and America in the economic respect - requires us not only to mobilize all our forces and knowledge, but also to take into account and correcting the mistakes and shortcomings in our work. It is known that enemies of the people, Trotskyite-Bukharin saboteurs, saboteurs, and spies of foreign intelligence services, who made their way into our party, Soviet and economic organs, did a lot of harm. But it would be a mistake to explain the breakthroughs that took place in a number of links of our national economy only by the subversive work of enemies. To a certain extent, these breakthroughs should be attributed to the poor, inept work of a number of our Soviet economic leaders, who have not yet sufficiently mastered the style of the Bolshevik leadership.

Comrade Stalin, even at the 17th Party Congress, criticizing the work of some People's Commissariats, said:

“They solve issues, but they don’t think about how to check the implementation, to call to order the violators of the instructions and orders of the governing bodies, to put forward honest and conscientious executors”.

Instead of a concrete operational resolution of issues, some of our economic people's commissariats and especially their central administrations convened all kinds of conferences, not always caused by necessity, often with the summons of a large number of workers from the periphery. Questions for the conferences are poorly prepared, the conferences themselves are dragging out, and the summoned comrades have to sit out in Moscow for days and weeks. The implementation of the decisions and resolutions passed by the conferences is not controlled by anyone, in a number of cases they lie for months with the heads of economic organizations and are consigned to oblivion. Some people's commissariats issue a colossal number of orders and orders, but they do not organize real control over the implementation of these orders and orders. Therefore, it is not uncommon for a number of orders of the same content or even contradicting each other to be issued on the same issue.

For example, in 1938 the People's Commissariat of the Union issued over 1,500 orders and orders, not counting orders for appointments and transfers, and the People's Commissariat for Water Resources issued 900 orders. In view of this, I would say, irresponsible attitude of some leaders of the economic people's commissariats and their central administrations to their own orders and orders, these documents lose their force and authority, are violated and ignored with impunity.

All this is largely due to the fact that these comrades do not study enough and delve into the work entrusted to them, they do not know cadres and are poorly connected with localities.

We need to draw all the necessary conclusions from what Comrade Stalin said in his report at our congress about the conscientious study of the assigned work, about the study and correct placement of cadres, about the decisive advancement of proven young workers loyal to the Party and Soviet power, about efficiency and concreteness in leadership, live communication and leadership approach to places.

For the fulfillment of the majestic plans of the third Stalinist five-year plan in our country there are all the conditions, but we must firmly remember the wise instructions of Comrade Stalin that:

"... Victory never comes by itself - it is usually dragged along."

"... The success of the cause depends on the organizational work, on the organization of the struggle for the implementation of the party line, on the correct selection of people, on the verification of the implementation of the decisions of the leading bodies."

The pre-congress discussion of the theses of Comrade Molotov's report on the third five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR showed the unanimous approval of the Soviet people of the Stalinist line of our party for the further development of the socialist economy and culture of our country, and their readiness to fight for the fulfillment of the outlined plans. Comrade Stalin, in his report, gave an ingenious justification of the ever-increasing role of the Soviet state in fulfilling further grandiose plans for building communism, in further strengthening the military might of our country, which is in capitalist encirclement.

The greatest merit of Comrade Stalin lies in the fact that he not only defended the Marxist-Leninist doctrine of the state in the struggle against the bitter enemies of Leninism-Trotskyist-Bukharin traitors, but also developed it further in the new historical conditions of victorious socialist construction in our country, which is in capitalism. surroundings.

The despicable Bukharinites, who came out with a counter-revolutionary theory of spontaneity and smeared the decisive, organizing role of the Soviet state, and the "left" of all stripes with their anti-Leninist theory of the withering away of the working class state through a gradual weakening of its role - served the same counter-revolutionary goal of restoring capitalism in our country by weakening of the Soviet state.

Directing devastating blows against the enemies of the people, Comrade Stalin exposed and smashed the enemy's attitudes on the question of the Soviet state and, with ingenious perspicacity, outlined the tasks in strengthening the dictatorship of the proletariat.

“Strong and powerful dictatorship of the proletariat, - said Comrade Stalin at the joint plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission in January 1933, - that's what we need now in order to scatter the last remnants of dying classes to dust and smash their thieves' machinations ... The withering away of the state will come not through weakening state power, but through its maximum strengthening, capitalist encirclement, which has not yet been destroyed and will not soon be destroyed. "

We must not forget for a moment the wise instructions of Comrade Stalin about the all-round strengthening of our Soviet state. Strengthening all links of the Soviet state apparatus with proven, strong cadres, and expelling from there all the enemies of the people, who have not yet been exposed and hidden, is a task of paramount importance.

Comrade Stalin emphasized in his report that our Soviet intelligence plays an important role in the system of our state.

Soviet intelligence was created on the initiative of Lenin and Stalin, it grew stronger and developed under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party, the Stalinist Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). In the matter of the further victorious movement of our country forward along the path to communism, the NKVD organs are entrusted with very important tasks, for our country lives and develops surrounded by hostile capitalist states that send spies, saboteurs and murderers to us. The vile enemies of the people will continue with even greater ferocity to try to harm, defile us, hinder the implementation of the further program of building communism.

Surrounded by the attention and care of the party and the people, selflessly loyal to our party, the Stalinist Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), their beloved leader, Comrade Stalin, the NKVD workers, clearing their ranks of enemy elements that have sneaked into them and strengthening their ranks with proven cadres, will provide exposure, defeat and the eradication of all enemies of the people. [Prolonged applause.]

Our invincible Communist Bolshevik Party, led by a wise leader - the Great Stalin, is the organizer of the victory of socialism in our country. In the life of our party, in its growth and strengthening, as in a mirror, all the victories won, all the changes that have taken place in the political, economic and cultural life of our country are reflected.

Comrade Stalin explained to us the meaning of the amendments made to the regulations of the CPSU (b), which proceed from the fact of a change in the class structure of our society on the basis of the elimination of the exploiting classes, from the fact of the moral and political unity of the Soviet people, consisting of the friendly working class, peasantry and intelligentsia, who are equally loyal to the cause of communism, imbued with a sense of Soviet patriotism and selflessly devoted to their socialist homeland.

Comrade Stalin's report at our congress, which gave an ingenious coverage of the issues of international politics and the ways of the victory of communism in our country, in the conditions of a capitalist encirclement, issues of the further development and strengthening of the Soviet state and the methods of cultivation, correct placement and communist education of party, Soviet and economic cadres, cadres the Soviet intelligentsia, is the greatest contribution to the ideological treasury of Marxism-Leninism, the program of action for our entire party, the entire Soviet people. [Stormy applause.]

Fulfilling the instructions of Comrade Stalin, our party will further strengthen its inextricable bond with the broadest masses of the working people, the peoples of the Soviet Union will rally even more closely around the banner of Lenin and Stalin, and will further strengthen the Stalinist friendship, which is the basis of the power and invincibility of the Soviet state.

Let the enemies know that our great Soviet Union is unapproachable, that it is invincible and that every day it grows stronger and develops, surrounded by Stalinist care, our heroic Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army, our people are invincible, constituting, together with their army, a single, indissoluble and formidable force, ready defeat and destroy any enemy who dares to encroach on the happiness and freedom of the Soviet people, on the sacred borders of our socialist homeland.

The historical instructions of Comrade Stalin and the decisions of the 18th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) will be implemented by our party, fostered by Lenin and Stalin and hardened in the battles for socialism, by our people closely rallied around the Bolshevik Party, for our party and our people are leading from victory to victory the greatest genius of mankind is our Stalin. [Stormy applause. Everyone gets up. Shouts: "Long live Soviet intelligence, hurray!"]

March 1939

________________________________________________________________________________ * 1 * XVIII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (b) March 10-21, 1939 (verbatim record). State Publishing House of Political Literature 1939.

* 2 * The peculiarities of spelling and geographical names of the original are preserved.

REPORT ON THE XVIII CONGRESS OF THE PARTY

ABOUT THE WORK of the Central Committee of the CPSU (B)

The international position of the Soviet Union

Comrades! Five years have passed since the 17th Party Congress. The period, as you can see, is considerable. During this time, the world has gone through significant changes. States and countries, their relations with each other, have become completely different in many respects.

What changes have occurred during this period in the international situation? What exactly has changed in the external and internal situation of our country?

For the capitalist countries, this period was a period of serious economic and political upheavals. In the economic field, these years were years of depression, and then, starting in the second half of 1937, years of a new economic crisis, years of a new decline in industry in the USA, England, France, and therefore, years of new economic complications. In the political field, these years were years of serious political conflicts and upheavals. For the second year now, a new imperialist war has been going on, playing out on a vast territory from Shanghai to Gibraltar and capturing more than 500 million people. The map of Europe, Africa, Asia is being forcibly redrawn. The entire system of the post-war so-called peace regime has been shaken to its roots.

For the Soviet Union, on the contrary, these years were years of its growth and prosperity, years of its further economic and cultural upsurge, years of further growth of its political and military power, years of its struggle to preserve world peace.

This is the general picture.

Consider specific data on changes in the international situation.

New economic crisis in capitalist countries.

Aggravation of the struggle for sales markets, for sources of raw materials,

for a new redivision of the world

The economic crisis that began in the capitalist countries in the second half of 1920 lasted until the end of 1933. After that, the crisis turned into a depression, and then a certain revival of industry began, a certain rise in it. But this revival of industry did not translate into prosperity, as is usually the case during a revival. On the contrary, starting in the second half of 1937, a new economic crisis began, which seized first of all the United States, and after them - England, France and a number of other countries.

Thus, having not yet had time to recover from the blows of the recent economic crisis, the capitalist countries found themselves in the face of a new economic crisis.

This circumstance naturally led to an increase in unemployment. The number of unemployed in the capitalist countries, which had fallen from 30 million in 1933 to 14 million in 1937, has now risen again as a result of a new crisis to 18 million.

A characteristic feature of the new crisis is that it differs in many respects from the previous crisis, and it differs not for the better, but for the worse.

Firstly, a new crisis began not after the prosperity of industry, as it happened in 1929, but after a depression and some recovery, which, however, did not turn into prosperity. This means that the current crisis will be more severe and more difficult to deal with than the previous crisis.

Further, the current crisis did not play out in peacetime, but during the period of the second imperialist war that had already begun, when Japan, fighting for the second year with China, disorganizes the vast Chinese market and makes it almost inaccessible for goods from other countries, when Italy and Germany have already transferred their the national economy on the rails of a war economy, having swallowed up their reserves of raw materials and currency, when all the other major capitalist powers begin to reorganize on a war footing. This means that capitalism will have much less resources for a normal exit from the current crisis than during the previous crisis.

Finally, in contrast to the previous crisis, the current crisis is not universal, but for the time being it is seizing mainly economically powerful countries that have not yet switched to the rails of a war economy. As for the aggressive countries like Japan, Germany and Italy, which have already rebuilt their economies on a war footing, they, while intensively developing their war industry, are not yet experiencing a crisis of overproduction, although they are approaching it. This means that while economically powerful, non-aggressive countries will begin to crawl out of the crisis period, aggressive countries, having depleted their gold and raw materials reserves during the war fever, will have to enter a period of the most severe crisis.

This is clearly illustrated at least by data on the presence of visible gold reserves in capitalist countries.

Visible gold reserves in capitalist countries

(in millions of old gold dollars)

		September





HOLLAND

SWITZERLAND
GERMANY

This table shows that the gold reserves of Germany, Italy and Japan, taken together, represent less than the reserves of Switzerland alone.

Here are some figures illustrating the crisis situation in the industry of the capitalist countries over the past five years and the movement of industrial growth in the USSR.

The volume of industrial production as a percentage of 1929






	GERMANY

This table shows that the Soviet Union is the only country in the world that does not know crises and whose industry is all time is running up.

From this table, it can be seen, finally, that in Germany, which later on Italy and Japan rebuilt its economy on a war footing, industry is still experiencing a state of some, albeit small, but still upward movement, corresponding to the way it took place before recently in Japan and Italy.

There can be no doubt that unless something unexpected happens, German industry will have to take the same downward path that Japan and Italy have already taken. For what does it mean to transfer the country's economy to the rails of a war economy? This means giving industry a one-sided, military direction, expanding in every possible way the production of items necessary for war, not connected with the consumption of the population, in every possible way narrowing production and especially the release of consumer goods on the market, therefore, reducing the consumption of the population and putting the country in front of an economic crisis.

This is the concrete picture of the movement of the new economic crisis in the capitalist countries.

It is clear that such an unfavorable turn of economic affairs could not but lead to an aggravation of relations between the powers. Already the previous crisis confused all the cards and led to an aggravation of the struggle over markets, over the sources of raw materials. The seizure of Manchuria and Northern China by Japan, the seizure of Abyssinia by Italy - all this reflected the severity of the struggle between the powers. The new economic crisis should have led and is indeed leading to a further exacerbation of the imperialist struggle. This is no longer about competition in the markets, not about a trade war, not about dumping. These means of struggle have long been recognized as insufficient. Now we are talking about a new redistribution of the world, spheres of influence, colonies through military action.

Japan began to justify its aggressive actions by the fact that at the conclusion of the treaty, the nine powers were deprived of it and were not allowed to expand its territory at the expense of China, while Britain and France own huge colonies. Italy remembered that it had been cheated in the division of the spoils after the first imperialist war and that it had to compensate for itself at the expense of the spheres of influence of Britain and France. Germany, seriously affected by the first imperialist war and the Versailles Peace, joined Japan and Italy and demanded the expansion of its territory in Europe, the return of the colonies taken from it by the victors in the first imperialist war.

This is how a bloc of three aggressive states began to take shape.

The next step was the question of a new redivision of the world through war.

Aggravation of the international political situation,

the collapse of the post-war system of peace treaties, the beginning

new imperialist war

Here is a list of the most important events during the reporting period that marked the beginning of the imperialist war. In 1935, Italy attacked and conquered Abyssinia. In the summer of 1936, Germany and Italy organized a military intervention in Spain, with Germany establishing itself in northern Spain and Spanish Morocco, and Italy in southern Spain and the Balearic Islands. In 1937, after the capture of Manchuria, Japan invaded North and Central China, occupied Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and began to oust its foreign competitors from the zone of occupation. At the beginning of 1938, Germany seized Austria, and in the fall of 1938 - the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. At the end of 1938, Japan captured Canton, and at the beginning of 1939 - the island of Hainan.

Thus, the war, which so imperceptibly crept up to the peoples, pulled over five hundred million people into its orbit, extending its sphere of action to a vast territory - from Tianjin, Shanghai and Canton through Abyssinia to Gibraltar.

After the first imperialist war, the victorious states, mainly England, France and the United States, created a new regime of relations between countries, a post-war regime of peace. The main foundations of this regime were in the Far East - the treaty of nine powers, and in Europe - the Versailles and a number of other treaties. The League of Nations was called upon to regulate relations between countries within the framework of this regime on the basis of a united front of states, on the basis of collective protection of the security of states. However, the three aggressive states and the new imperialist war they started toppled upside down this entire system of the post-war peace regime. Japan tore up the Treaty of Nine Powers, Germany and Italy - the Treaty of Versailles. To free their hands, all three of these states withdrew from the League of Nations.

The new imperialist war has become a fact. In our time, it is not so easy to break off the chain at once and rush straight into war, disregarding all kinds of treaties, disregarding public opinion. Bourgeois politicians know this well enough. This is also known to the fascist bosses. Therefore, the fascist bosses, before rushing into the war, decided in a known way to process public opinion, that is, to mislead it, to deceive it.

Military bloc of Germany and Italy against the interests of Britain and France in Europe? Mercy, what a bloc this is! "We" do not have any military bloc. "We" only have a harmless "Berlin-Rome axis", that is, some geometric formula about the axis.

Military bloc of Germany, Italy and Japan against the interests of the United States, Britain and France in the Far East? Nothing like this! "We" have only a harmless "Berlin-Rome-Tokyo triangle", that is, a little passion for geometry.

A war against the interests of England, France, the United States? Trivia! "We" are waging a war against the Comintern, not against these states. If you don't believe me, read the "Anti-Comintern Pact" concluded between Italy, Germany and Japan.

This is how the aggressors thought to process public opinion, although it was not difficult to understand that this whole awkward game of disguise was sewn with white thread, for it is ridiculous to look for the "centers" of the Comintern in the deserts of Mongolia, in the mountains of Abyssinia, in the wilds of Spanish Morocco.

But the war is relentless. It cannot be hidden by any kind of veil. For no "axes", "triangles" and "anti-Comintern pacts" can hide the fact that Japan seized during this time a huge territory of China, Italy - Abyssinia, Germany - Austria and the Sudetenland, Germany and Italy together - Spain - all this contrary to the interests of non-aggressive states. The war has remained a war, the military bloc of aggressors is a military bloc, and the aggressors are aggressors.

A characteristic feature of the new imperialist war is that it has not yet become a general, world war. The war is waged by the aggressor states, in every possible way infringing on the interests of non-aggressive states, primarily England, France, and the United States, while the latter retreat and retreat, giving the aggressors concession after concession.

Unbelievable but true.

How can such a one-sided and strange character of the new imperialist war be explained?

How could it happen that non-aggressive countries with enormous opportunities so easily and without resistance abandoned their positions and obligations to please the aggressors?

How, then, can we explain the systematic concessions of these states to the aggressors?

But this is not the only and not even the main reason now. The main reason lies in the refusal of the majority of non-aggressive countries, and above all England and France, from the policy of collective resistance to the aggressors, in their transition to a position of non-interference, to a position of "neutrality."

Formally, the policy of non-interference could be characterized as follows: "Let each country defend itself from the aggressors as it wants and how it can, our business is the side, we will trade with the aggressors and their victims." In fact, however, the policy of non-interference means conniving at aggression, unleashing a war, and therefore turning it into a world war. The policy of non-interference shows the desire, the desire not to prevent the aggressors from doing their dirty deed, not to prevent, say, Japan from getting involved in the war with China, and even better with the Soviet Union, not to prevent, say, Germany from getting bogged down in European affairs, getting involved in the war with the Soviet Union. Union, to let all the participants in the war sink deep into the mud of the war, to encourage them in this on the sly, to let them weaken and exhaust each other, and then, when they are sufficiently weak, to appear on the stage with fresh forces - to act, of course, "in the interests of peace." and dictate their conditions to the weakened participants in the war.

And cheap and cute!

Take Japan, for example. It is characteristic that before the start of Japan's invasion of North China, all influential French and English newspapers loudly shouted about China's weakness, its inability to resist, and that Japan with its army could conquer China in two or three months. Then the European-American politicians began to wait and watch. And then, when Japan launched hostilities, they ceded Shanghai - the heart of foreign capital in China, ceded Canton - a hotbed of British monopoly influence in South China, ceded Hainan, and allowed Hong Kong to be encircled. Isn't it all very similar to encouraging the aggressor: they say, get further into the war, and then we'll see.

Or, for example, take Germany. They conceded Austria to it, despite the obligation to defend its independence, ceded the Sudetenland, abandoned Czechoslovakia to the mercy of fate, violating all and "riots" in the Soviet Union, pushing the Germans further east, promising them easy prey and saying: you just start a war with the Bolsheviks, and then everything will go well. It must be admitted that this is also very similar to pushing, to encouraging the aggressor.

Of course, it is quite possible that there are madmen in Germany who dream of annexing an elephant, that is, Soviet Ukraine, to a booger, that is, to the so-called Carpathian Ukraine. And if there really are such crazy people there, there is no doubt that in our country there will be the necessary number of straitjackets for such crazy people. But if we cast aside the crazy and turn to normal people, is it not clear that it is ridiculous and stupid to speak seriously about the annexation of Soviet Ukraine to the so-called Carpathian Ukraine? A booger came to the elephant and said to him, turning on his hips: "Oh, you, my brother, how sorry I am for you ... You live without landowners, without capitalists, without national oppression, without fascist rulers - what kind of life is this ... I look at you and I can't help but notice - there is no salvation for you, except to join me ... Well, so be it, I allow you to annex your small territory to my vast territory ... "

It is even more characteristic that some politicians and media figures in Europe and the United States, having lost their patience in anticipation of a "march on Soviet Ukraine," themselves begin to expose the real underlying motives of the policy of non-intervention. They directly say and write in black and white that the Germans severely "disappointed" them, because instead of moving further east, against the Soviet Union, you see, they turned west and demand colonies for themselves. You might think that the Germans were given the regions of Czechoslovakia as a price for the obligation to start a war with the Soviet Union, and the Germans are now refusing to pay the bill, sending them somewhere far away.

I am far from moralizing about the policy of non-interference, talking about "treason, betrayal, etc. It is naive to read morality to people who do not recognize human morality. Politics is politics, as the old hardened bourgeois diplomats say. It is necessary, however, to note that the big and dangerous political game, started by the supporters of the policy of non-interference, could end in a serious failure for them.

This is the real face of the policy of non-intervention prevailing today.

This is the political situation in the capitalist countries.

3. Soviet Union and capitalist countries

The war has created a new environment in relations between countries. She introduced an atmosphere of anxiety and insecurity into this relationship. By undermining the foundations of the post-war peace regime and overturning basic concepts of international law, the war called into question the value of international treaties and obligations. Pacifism and disarmament projects were buried in a coffin. Arms fever took their place. Everyone began to arm themselves - from small to large states, including, above all, states pursuing a policy of non-intervention. No one believes any more in the unctuous speeches that the Munich concessions to the aggressors and the Munich agreement marked the beginning of a new era of "appeasement." Nor do the participants in the Munich agreement themselves - Britain and France, believe in them, which, no less than others, began to strengthen their armaments.

It is clear that the USSR could not ignore these terrible events. There is no doubt that any war, even a small one, started by aggressors somewhere in a remote corner of the world, poses a danger to peace-loving countries. The more serious danger is posed by the new imperialist war, which has already managed to draw into its orbit more than five hundred million of the population of Asia, Africa and Europe. In view of this, our country, steadily pursuing a policy of preserving peace, has launched at the same time the most serious work to strengthen the combat readiness of our Red Army, our Red Navy.

At the same time, in the interests of strengthening its international positions, the Soviet Union decided to take some other steps. At the end of 1934, our country joined the League of Nations, proceeding from the fact that, despite its weakness, it can still be useful as "a place for exposing the aggressors and as some, albeit weak, instrument of peace that could slow down the outbreak of war. Soviet Union believes that even such a weak international organization as the League of Nations should not be neglected in such an alarming time.In May 1935, an agreement was concluded between France and the Soviet Union on mutual assistance against a possible attack by aggressors.At the same time, a similar agreement was concluded with Czechoslovakia. In March 1936, the Soviet Union concluded an agreement with the Mongolian People's Republic about mutual assistance. In August 1937, a mutual non-aggression pact was signed between the Soviet Union and the Republic of China.

In these difficult international conditions, the Soviet Union pursued its foreign policy, defending the cause of the preservation of peace. The foreign policy of the Soviet Union is clear and understandable:

1. We stand for peace and the strengthening of business ties with all countries, we stand and will stand in this position, since these countries will maintain the same relations with the Soviet Union, since they will not try to violate the interests of our country.

2. We stand for peaceful, close and good-neighborly relations with all neighboring countries that have a common border with the USSR, we stand and will remain in this position, since these countries will maintain the same relations with the Soviet Union, since they will not try to violate, directly or indirectly, the interests of the integrity and inviolability of the borders of the Soviet state.

3. We stand for the support of peoples who have become victims of aggression and who are fighting for the independence of their homeland.

4. We are not afraid of threats from the aggressors and are ready to respond with a double blow to the blow of the warmongers who are trying to violate the inviolability of Soviet borders. This is the foreign policy of the Soviet Union. In its foreign policy, the Soviet Union relies on:

1. On its growing economic, political and cultural power;

2. On the moral and political unity of our Soviet society;

3. For the friendship of the peoples of our country;

4. To your Red Army and the Red Navy;

5. On its peaceful policy;

6. For the moral support of the working people of all countries, vitally interested in the preservation of peace;

7. On the prudence of those countries that are not interested, for one reason or another, in breaking the peace.

The tasks of the party in the field of foreign policy:

1. Continue to pursue a policy of peace and strengthening business ties with all countries;

2. To be careful and not to allow our country to be drawn into conflicts by the provocateurs of war, who are accustomed to raking in the heat with someone else's hands;

3. In every way to strengthen the combat power of our Red Army and the Red Navy;

4. Strengthen international ties of friendship with the working people of all countries interested in peace and friendship between peoples.

The internal situation of the Soviet Union

Let's move on to the internal situation in our country.

From the point of view of the internal situation in the Soviet Union, the period under review presents a picture of the further development of the entire national economy, the growth of culture, and the strengthening of the country's political might.

The most important result "in the development of the national economy during the reporting period must be recognized the completion of the reconstruction of industry and agriculture on the basis of new, modern technology. We no longer have, or almost no longer, old factories with their backward technology and old peasant farms with their antediluvian The basis of our industry and agriculture is now new, modern technology.It can be said without exaggeration that from the point of view of production technology, from the point of view of the saturation of industry and agriculture with new technology, our country is the most advanced in comparison with any other country where old equipment hanging on the feet of production "and hinders the introduction of new technology.

In the field of the country's social and political development, the most important achievement during the period under review is the final elimination of the remnants of the exploiting classes, the rallying of workers, peasants and intelligentsia into one common labor front, the strengthening of the moral and political unity of Soviet society, the strengthening of friendship between the peoples of our country, and as a result of everything This is the complete democratization of the country's political life, the creation of a new Constitution. No one dares to dispute that our Constitution is the most democratic in the world, and the results of the elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, as well as to the Supreme Soviets of the Union republics, are the most revealing.

As a result of all this, we have complete stability of the internal situation and such strength of power in the country that any government in the world could envy.

Consider specific data on the economic and political situation in our country.

1. Further rise of industry and Agriculture

a) Industry. The progress of our industry during the period under review presents a picture of a steady recovery. This rise reflects not only the growth of production in general, but above all the prosperity of socialist industry, on the one hand, and the ruin of private industry, on the other.

Here is the relevant table:

The growth of the USSR industry in 1934-1938

%% to the previous year

1938 in% to 1933

RUB million in prices of 1926-27

All products, including:

2. Private industry

In percents

All products, including:

1. Socialist industry

2. Private industry

It can be seen from this table that our industry more than doubled during the period under review, and the entire growth in production came at the expense of socialist production.

Finally, this table shows that the final ruin of private industry is a fact that even the blind cannot deny now.

The death of private industry cannot be considered an accident. It perished primarily because the socialist economic system is a higher system in comparison with the capitalist system. It perished, secondly, because the socialist economic system gave us the opportunity in a few years to re-equip our entire socialist industry on a new, modern technical basis. The capitalist economic system does not and cannot provide such an opportunity. It is a fact that from the point of view of production technology, from the point of view of the volume of saturation of industrial production with new technology, our industry ranks first in the world.

If we take the growth rates of our industry as a percentage of the pre-war level and compare them with the growth rates of industry in the main capitalist countries, we get the following picture:

Industrial growth of the USSR

and the main capitalist countries for 1913-1938





GERMANY

This table shows that our industry has grown in comparison with the pre-war level by more than nine times, while the industry of the main capitalist countries continues to trample around the pre-war level, exceeding it by only 20-30 percent.

This means that in terms of growth rates, our socialist industry ranks first in the world.

It turns out, therefore, that in terms of production technique and the rate of growth of our industry, we have already caught up with and surpassed the main capitalist countries.

Where are we lagging behind? We are still lagging behind economically, that is, in terms of the size of our industrial production per capita. We produced in 1938 about 15 million tons of pig iron, and England - 7 million tons. It would seem that things are better here than in England. But if we decompose these tons of pig iron by the number of population, it turns out that in England there were 145 kilograms of pig iron per capita in 1938, and in the USSR - only 87 kilograms. Or again: England produced in 1938 10 million and 800 thousand tons of steel and about 29 billion kilowatt-hours (electricity production), and the USSR produced 18 million tons of steel and more than 39 billion kilowatt-hours. It would seem that things are better here than in England. But if we decompose all these tons and kilowatt-hours into the population, then it turns out that in England there were 226 kilograms of steel and 620 kilowatt-hours per capita in 1938, while in the USSR there were only 107 kilograms of steel and 233 kilowatt-hours. hours per capita.

What's the matter? And the fact is that our population is several times larger than in England, therefore, there are more needs than in England: the population of the Soviet Union is 170 million, and in England there is no more than 46 million. The economic power of industry is expressed not in the volume of industrial production in general, regardless of the population of the country, but in the volume of industrial production, taken in its direct connection with the volume of consumption of this product per capita. The more industrial production per capita, the higher the economic power of the country, and vice versa, the less production per capita, the lower the economic power of the country and its industry. Consequently, the larger the population in a country, the more needs in the country for consumer goods, therefore, the greater should be the volume of industrial production of such a country.

Take, for example, the production of pig iron. In order to overtake England economically in the field of pig iron production, the production of which there in 1938 was 7 million tons, we need to bring the annual production of pig iron to 25 million tons. To overtake economically Germany, which produced only 18 million tons of pig iron in 1938, we need to bring the annual production of pig iron to 40-45 million tons. And in order to overtake the United States economically, meaning not the level of 1938 of the crisis year, when the United States produced only 18.8 million tons of pig iron, but the level of 1929, when the industry was booming in the United States and when about 43 million tons of pig iron were produced there, we must increase annual production of pig iron up to 50-60 million tons.

The same must be said about the production of steel, rolled products, machine building, etc., since all these branches of industry, like other branches, depend in the last analysis on the production of pig iron.

We have surpassed the main capitalist countries in terms of production technology and industrial development rates. It is very good. But this is not enough. It is also necessary to overtake them economically. We can do it, and we must do it. Only if we surpass the economically main capitalist countries, we can expect that our country will be completely saturated with consumer goods, we will have an abundance of products and we will be able to make the transition from the first phase of communism to its second phase.

What is required to overtake the economically major capitalist countries? This requires, first of all, a serious and indomitable desire to go forward and a willingness to make sacrifices, to make serious capital investment for the all-round expansion of our socialist industry. Do we have this data? Certainly there is! This requires, further, the presence of high production technology and high rates of industrial development. Do we have this data? Certainly there is! This requires "finally, time. Yes, comrades, time. It is necessary to build new factories. It is necessary to forge new cadres for industry. But this requires time, and considerable time. It is impossible to overtake the economically main capitalist countries in 2-3 years. it takes a little more time. Take, for example, the same pig iron and its production? During what period of time it is possible to overtake the economically main capitalist countries in the field of pig iron production? This means that they proceeded from the possibility of an average annual increase in the production of pig iron in the amount of 10 million tons. This was, of course, fantastic, if not worse. However, these comrades hit the fantasy not only in the field of pig iron production. believed, for example, that during the second five-year plan, the annual population growth in the USSR up to it is false to amount to three or four million people or even more than that. It was also fantastic, if not worse. But if we cast aside the dreamers and stand on real ground, then we can take as a completely possible average annual increase in pig iron smelting in the amount of two or two and a half million tons, bearing in mind the current state of the art of iron smelting. The history of industry in the main capitalist countries, as well as in our country, shows that this rate of annual growth is intense, but quite achievable.

Consequently, it takes time, and considerable time, in order to overtake the economically main capitalist countries. And the higher our labor productivity, the more our production technology improves, the sooner it will be possible to fulfill this most important economic task, the more it will be possible to shorten the time frame for completing this task.

b) Agriculture. During the period under review, the development of agriculture, as well as the development of industry, proceeded along the line of growth. This upsurge is expressed not only in the growth of agricultural production, but above all in the growth and strengthening of socialist agriculture, on the one hand, and the destruction of individual farming, on the other. While the area sown to grain by collective farms increased from 75 million in 1933 to 92 million hectares in 1938, the area sown to grain by individual farmers decreased during this period from 15.7 million hectares to 600 thousand hectares, that is, to 0.6 percent of the total sown area of grain. I am not even talking about the sown area for industrial crops, where the role of a sole proprietor has been reduced to zero. It is known, moreover, that the collective farms now have 18 million 800 thousand peasant households, that is, 93.5 percent of all peasant households, not counting the fishing and fishing collective farms.

This means that the collective farms are finally consolidated and consolidated, and the socialist economic system is now the only form of our agriculture.

If we compare the movement of sown areas for all crops for the reporting period with the size of sown areas of the pre-revolutionary period, we get the following picture:

Sown area of all crops in the USSR

	In millions of hectares
		1938 in% to 1913
The entire sown area, including:
A) Cereals
B) Technical
C) Garden and melons
D) Fodder

It can be seen from this table that the sown area has grown in all crops and, first of all, in the area of fodder, industrial and vegetable-and-gourd crops.

This means that our agriculture is becoming more skilled and productive, and the introduction of the correct crop rotation is gaining real ground.

How the armament of our collective and state farms with tractors, combines and other machines grew during the reporting period, the following tables give an answer to this:

Tractor fleet in agriculture of the USSR

							1938 %% to 1913
A) Number of tractors (in thousand units)
Total tractors, including:
a) Tractors in MTS
b) Tractors on state farms and subsidiary farms. enterprises
b) Power in thousand horses. forces
All tractors, including:
a) Tractors in MTS
b) Tractors in state farms and subsidiary agricultural enterprises

Park of combines and other machines in the agriculture of the USSR

(in thousand pieces; at the end of the year)

							in %% by 1933.
Combine harvesters
Internal combustion engines and locomotives
Complex and Semi-Complex Grain Threshers
Trucks
Cars (in pieces)

If we add to these figures the fact that the number of machine and tractor stations in the reporting period increased from 2,900 units in 1934 to 6,350 units in 1938, then on the basis of all these data we can say with confidence that the reconstruction of our agriculture based on new, modern technology has been largely completed.

Our agriculture is, therefore, not only the largest and most mechanized, and therefore the most marketable agriculture, but also the most equipped with modern technology than the agriculture of any other country.

If we take the movement in the growth of production of grain and industrial crops for the reporting period in comparison with the pre-revolutionary period, then the data give the following picture:

Gross production of grain and industrial crops in the USSR

In millions of centners

							1938 in% to 1913
Cereals
Cotton - raw
Linen (fiber)
Sugar beet
Oilseeds

It can be seen from this table that, despite the drought in the eastern and southeastern regions in 1936 and 1938, and despite the unprecedentedly high harvest in 1913, the growth of the gross production of grain and industrial crops was steadily upward in the reporting period. comparison with the level of 1913.

Particularly interesting is the question of the marketability of collective and state farm grain production. The well-known statistician comrade Nemchinov calculated that of the five billion poods of gross grain production in the pre-war period, only about 1.3 billion poods of marketable grain were sold to the market, which is 26 percent of the marketability of the grain production at that time. Comrade Nemchinov believes that the marketability of collective and state farm production as large-scale production, for example, in 1926-1927 amounted to about 47 percent of the gross output, and the marketability of the individual peasant economy - about 12 percent. If we approach the matter more carefully and accept the marketability of collective farm and state farm production in 1938 at 40 percent of gross production, it turns out that our socialist grain economy could release and actually released this year about two billion and three hundred million poods of marketable grain. "that is, 1 billion poods more marketable grain than the pre-war grain production.

Consequently, the high marketability of collective and state farm production is its the most important feature, which is of the greatest importance for the supply of the country.

This particular feature of collective farms and state farms is the secret of the fact that our country has managed so easily and quickly to solve the grain problem - the problem of sufficient supply of a huge country with marketable grain.

It should be noted that over the past three years the annual grain procurement in our country has not dropped below one billion six hundred million poods of grain, sometimes rising, for example, in 1937, to billion 800 million poods. If we add to this about 200 million of the annual purchase of grain and several hundred million through the collective farm grain trade, then we will receive, in total, that amount of supply to the side of marketable grain by the collective farms and state farms, which was mentioned above.

It is interesting, further, to note that over the past three years the marketable grain base has moved from Ukraine, which was previously considered the breadbasket of our country, to the north and east, that is, to the RSFSR. It is known that over the past two or three years Ukraine has procured grain only about 400 million poods annually, while the RSFSR has procured over these years annually one hundred billion to two hundred million poods of marketable grain.

This is the case with grain production.

As for animal husbandry, even in this, the most backward, branch of agriculture, serious shifts have been outlined in recent years. True, in terms of horse livestock and sheep breeding, we are still lagging behind the pre-revolutionary level, but in cattle and pig breeding, we have already passed the pre-revolutionary level.

Here are the data on this score:

Livestock in the USSR (in million heads)

	For the month of July	1938, in %%
	1916 census	By 1916 census

Cattle
Sheep and goats

There can be no doubt that backwardness in horse and sheep breeding will be eliminated in the shortest possible time.

c) Trade turnover, transport. Along with the rise of industry and agriculture, the trade turnover in the country also grew. The retail network of state and cooperative trade grew by 25 percent during the reporting period. The retail turnover of state and cooperative trade grew by 178 percent. The turnover of collective farm and bazaar trade increased by 112 percent.

Here is the relevant table:

Turnover

							1938 in %% by 1933
1. Retail network of state and cooperative trade (shops and stalls) - at the end of the year
2. Retail turnover of state and cooperative trade (including public catering) - in million rubles.
3. The turnover of kolkhoz and bazaar trade in million rubles.
4. Regional trading bases of sales of the People's Commissariat for Food Industry, NKLegprom, People's Commissariat for Tyazhprom, NKLesa, NKMestpromov of the Union Republics - at the end of the year

It is clear that the trade turnover in the country could not have developed like this without a certain increase in transportation. Indeed, traffic increased over the reporting period for all types of transport, especially rail and air. Transportations also increased in water transport, but with great fluctuations, and in 1938, transportations by water transport, unfortunately, gave a slight decrease in comparison with the previous year.

Here is the relevant table:

Freight turnover

							1938 in% by 1933
Railways (in billions tonne-kilometers)
River and sea transport (in billions of tonne-kilometers)
Civil Air Fleet (in millions of tonne-kilometers)

There can be no doubt that some backwardness of water transport in 1938 will be eliminated in 1939.

Further rise of material and cultural

the situation of the people

The continuing rise of industry and agriculture could not but lead and indeed led to a new growth in the material and cultural situation of the people.

The abolition of exploitation and the strengthening of the socialist system in the national economy, the absence of unemployment and related poverty in the city and countryside, the tremendous expansion of industry and the continuous growth of the number of workers, the growth of labor productivity of workers and collective farmers, the consolidation of land forever with the collective farms and the supply of collective farms with an enormous number of first-class tractors and agricultural machinery - all this created real conditions for the further growth of the material situation of workers and peasants. The improvement in the material conditions of the workers and peasants naturally led to an improvement in the material conditions of the intelligentsia, which represents a significant force in our country and serves the interests of the workers and peasants.

Now it is no longer a question of hiring unemployed and homeless peasants who have fought back from the countryside and live under fear of starvation out of mercy in industry and hire them out of mercy. There are no such peasants in our country for a long time. And this, of course, is good, for it testifies to the prosperity of our village. Now it can only be a question of inviting the collective farms to respect our request and releasing at least one and a half million young collective farmers annually for our growing industry. The collective farms, which have already become prosperous, should bear in mind that without such help from their side it will be very difficult to expand our industry further, and without the expansion of industry we will not be able to satisfy the growing demand of the peasants for consumer goods. The collective farms have the full opportunity to satisfy this request of ours, since the abundance of technology on the collective farms frees some of the workers in the countryside, and these workers, transferred to industry, could bring tremendous benefits to our entire national economy.

As a result, we have the following indicators of improvement in the material situation of workers and peasants for the reporting period:

1. The national income increased from 48.5 billion rubles in 1933 to 105.0 billion rubles in 1938;

2. The number of workers and employees rose from over 22 million in 1933 to 28 million in 1938;

3. The annual wages fund for workers and employees increased from 34.953 million rubles to 96.425 million rubles;

4. The average annual wages of industrial workers, which stood at 1,513 rubles in 1933, rose to 3,447 rubles in 1938;

5. Cash incomes of collective farms rose from 5.661.9 million rubles in 1933 to 14.180.1 million rubles in 1937;

6. The average output of grain in grain areas per collective farm household rose from 61 poods in 1933 to 144 poods in 1937, not counting seeds, seed insurance funds, fodder fund for public livestock, grain deliveries, payment in kind for MTS work;

7. State budget allocations for social and cultural events increased from 5.839.9 million rubles in 1933 to 35.202.5 million rubles in 1938.

As for the cultural situation of the people, its rise followed the rise in the material situation of the people.

From the point of view of the cultural development of the people, the period under review was truly a period of the cultural revolution. The introduction of compulsory primary education in the languages of the nationalities of the USSR, an increase in the number of schools and students of all levels, an increase in the number of specialists graduating from higher schools, the creation and strengthening of a new, Soviet intelligentsia - this is the general picture of the cultural upsurge of the people.

Here are the data on this score:

Raising the cultural level of the people

Indicators	unit of measurement	1938/39 in% to 1933/34
The number of students in schools of all levels, Including:
on primary education
on secondary education (general and special)
on higher education
The number of students in the USSR (including all types of education)
Number of bulk libraries
The number of books in them
Number of club establishments

Number of theaters
Number of cinema installations (excluding narrow-film)
Including sound
The number of cinema installations (excluding narrow-film ones) in the countryside
Including sound
Annual circulation of newspapers

Schools built in 1933-1938 across the USSR

	NUMBER OF SCHOOLS
	In cities and urban-type settlements	In rural areas






In total for 1933-38.

Young specialists graduated from higher educational institutions in 1933-1938


Total for the USSR (excluding military specialists)
1. Engineers of industry and construction
2. Transport and communications engineers
3. Agricultural mechanization engineers, agronomists, veterinarians and livestock specialists
4. Economists and lawyers
5 Teachers of secondary schools, workers' faculties, technical schools and other educators, including art workers
b) Doctors, pharmacists and physical culture workers
Other specialties

As a result of all this tremendous cultural work, a large new, Soviet intelligentsia was born and formed in our country, emerging from the ranks of the working class, peasantry, Soviet employees, flesh of flesh and blood of the blood of our people - an intelligentsia that does not know the yoke of exploitation, hates exploiters and is ready serve the peoples of the USSR with faith and truth.

I think that the birth of this new, popular, socialist intelligentsia is one of the most important results of the cultural revolution in our country.

3. Further consolidation of the Soviet system

One of the most important results of the reporting period is that it led to a further consolidation of the country's internal position, to a further consolidation of the Soviet system.

It couldn't have been otherwise. The establishment of the socialist system in all sectors of the national economy, the rise of industry and agriculture, the rise in the material situation of the working people, the increase in the culture of the masses, the increase in their political activity - all this, carried out under the leadership of the Soviet government, could not but lead to the further consolidation of the Soviet system.

The peculiarity of Soviet society today, unlike any capitalist society, is that there are no more antagonistic, hostile classes in it, the exploiting classes have been eliminated, and the workers, peasants and intelligentsia that make up Soviet society live and work on the basis of friendly cooperation. While capitalist society is torn by irreconcilable contradictions between workers and capitalists, between peasants and landowners, which leads to the instability of its internal situation, Soviet society, freed from the yoke of exploitation, does not know such contradictions, is free from class conflicts and presents a picture of friendly cooperation between workers. , peasants and intellectuals. On the basis of this community, such driving forces as the moral and political unity of Soviet society, the friendship of the peoples of the USSR, and Soviet patriotism developed. On the same basis, the Constitution of the USSR, adopted in November 1936, and the complete democratization of elections to the country's supreme bodies arose.

As for the elections themselves to the supreme bodies of the country, they served as a brilliant demonstration of the very unity of Soviet society and the very friendship of the peoples of the USSR that constitute characteristic feature the internal situation of our country. As you know, in the elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in December 1937, almost 90 million voters voted for the bloc of communists and non-party people, that is, 98.6 percent of all those who took part in the voting, and in the elections to the Supreme Soviets of the union republics in June 1938 for the bloc communists and non-party people voted 92 million voters, that is, 99.4 percent of all those who took part in the vote.

That is where the basis of the strength of the Soviet system and the source of the inexhaustible strength of Soviet power lies.

This means, among other things, that in the event of war, the rear and front of our army, due to their homogeneity and internal unity, will be stronger than in any other country, which should be remembered by foreign fans of military clashes.

Some foreign press officials say that the cleansing of Soviet organizations of spies, murderers and saboteurs like Trotsky, Zinoviev, Kamenev, Yakir, Tukhachevsky, Rozengolts, Bukharin and other monsters allegedly "shaken" the Soviet system and brought about "decay." This vulgar chatter is worth poking fun at. How can the cleansing of Soviet organizations of harmful and hostile elements shake and destroy the Soviet system? Trotskyist-Bukharin handful of spies, murderers and wreckers, groveling in front of foreign countries, imbued with a slavish feeling of servility before every foreign bureaucracy and ready to go into his espionage service - a handful of people who did not understand that the last Soviet citizen, free from the chains of capital, is worth head above any foreign high-ranking bureaucrats, dragging on the shoulders of the yoke of the capitalist nobility - who needs this miserable gang of corrupt slaves, what value can it be for the people and who can it "corrupt"? In 1937, Tukhachevsky, Yakir, Uborevich and other monsters were sentenced to death. After that, elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR took place. The elections gave the Soviet power 98.6 percent of all participants in the vote. In early 1938, Rozengolts, Rykov, Bukharin and other monsters were sentenced to death. After that, elections were held to the Supreme Soviets of the Union republics. The elections gave the Soviet power 99.4 percent of all voting participants. The question arises, where are the signs of "decay" and why did this "decay" not affect the election results?

Listening to these foreign chatterboxes, one can come to the conclusion that if spies, murderers and saboteurs were left at will and did not prevent them from harming, killing and spying, then Soviet organizations would be much more durable and stable. Is it too early to betray themselves headlong, these gentlemen, so brazenly defending spies, murderers, saboteurs?

Would it not be more correct to say that the cleansing of Soviet organizations of spies, murderers, and saboteurs should have led and did lead to the further strengthening of these organizations?

What do the events at Lake Khasan say, for example, if not that cleansing Soviet organizations of spies and pests is the surest way to strengthen them?

Tasks of the party in the field of internal politics:

1. To further develop the rise of our industry, the growth of labor productivity, and the improvement of production techniques so that, after they have already surpassed the main capitalist countries in production technology and industrial growth rates, they will also be surpassed economically within the next 10-15 years.

2. To expand further the rise of our agriculture and animal husbandry in order to achieve an annual grain production of 8 billion poods with an average yield per hectare of 12-13 centners over the next 3-4 years, and to increase the production of industrial crops by 30-35 percent on average. , increase the number of sheep and pigs by half, the number of cattle - by 40 percent, the number of horses - by 35 percent.

4. Unswervingly implement our socialist Constitution, carry out to the end the democratization of the country's political life, strengthen the moral and political unity of Soviet society and friendly cooperation between workers, peasants, and intelligentsia, strengthen the friendship of the peoples of the USSR in every way, develop and cultivate Soviet patriotism.

5. Do not forget about the capitalist encirclement, remember that foreign intelligence will send spies, murderers, wreckers to our country, remember this and strengthen our socialist intelligence, systematically helping it to smash and root up the enemies of the people.

Further strengthening of the CPSU (b)

From the point of view of the political line and everyday practical work, the reporting period was a period of complete victory of the general line of our party.

The establishment of the socialist system in the entire national economy, the completion of the reconstruction of industry and agriculture on the basis of new technology, the early fulfillment of the second five-year industrial plan, the rise in annual grain production to the level of 7 billion poods, the elimination of poverty and unemployment and the rise in the material and cultural situation of the people - these are the main achievements that demonstrate the correctness of the policy of our party, the correctness of its leadership.

In the face of these grandiose achievements, opponents of the general line of our party, different "left" and "right" trends, all sorts of Trotskyist-Pyatakov and Bukharin-Rykov degenerates were forced to crumple into a ball, hide their worn-out "platforms" and go underground. Lacking the courage to submit to the will of the people, they chose to merge with the Mensheviks, Socialist-Revolutionaries, fascists, go into the service of foreign intelligence, hire themselves as spies and pledge to help the enemies of the Soviet Union to dismember our country and restore capitalist slavery in it.

Such is the inglorious end of the opponents of the line of our Party, who later became enemies of the people.

Having defeated the enemies of the people and cleared the party and Soviet organizations of degenerates, the party became even more united in its political and organizational work, it became even more rallied around its Central Committee.

Let us consider specific data on the development of the internal life of the party, on its organizational and propaganda work during the period under review.

Measures to improve the composition of the party. Disaggregation of organizations.

Bringing the governing bodies closer to grassroots work

The strengthening of the party and its governing bodies during the reporting period was carried out primarily along two lines: along the line of regulating the composition of the party, ousting the unreliable and selecting the best, and along the line of downsizing organizations, reducing their size and bringing the governing bodies closer to grassroots, operational, concrete work.

1,874,488 party members were represented at the 17th Party Congress. If we compare these data with the data on the number of party members represented at the previous, 16th party congress, it turns out that during the period from the 16th party congress to the 17th congress, 600 thousand new party members arrived in the party. The party could not help but feel that such a massive influx into the party under the conditions of 1930-1933 was an unhealthy and undesirable expansion of its composition. The party knew that not only honest and loyal people, but also random people, but also careerists, seeking to use the party's banner for their own purposes, entered its ranks. The party could not fail to know that it is strong not only in the number of its members, but above all in their quality.In this regard, the question arose about regulating the composition of the party It was decided to continue the purge of party members and candidates, which began in 1933, and it really was continued until May 1935 It was further decided to discontinue the admission of new members to the party, and it was actually stopped until September 1936, and the admission of new members to the party was resumed only on November 1, 1936. Further, in connection with the villainous murder of Comrade Kirov, which testified that there were many suspicious elements in the party, it was decided to check and exchange party documents, and both were completed only by September 1936. Only after that the admission to the party of new members and candidates was opened. As a result of all these measures, the party achieved that it purged its ranks of accidental, passive, careerist and outright hostile elements, selecting the most staunch and devoted people. This is not to say that the cleaning was carried out without serious errors. Unfortunately, there were more errors than one might have expected. There is no doubt that we will no longer have to use the mass cleansing method. But the purge of 1933-1936 was nevertheless inevitable, and it mostly yielded positive results. At the present, XVIII Congress, about 1.600 thousand party members are represented, that is, 270 thousand party members less than at the XVII Congress. But there is nothing wrong with that. On the contrary, this is for the better, for the Party is strengthened by cleansing itself of filth. Our party is now somewhat smaller in terms of the number of its members, but it is better in quality.

This is a great achievement.

As for improving the day-to-day party leadership in the sense of bringing it closer to grassroots work, in the sense of its further concretization, the party came to the conclusion that the downsizing of organizations, reducing their size is the best way to make it easier for the party bodies to manage these organizations, and to make the leadership concrete, lively, operational. The downsizing proceeded both through the people's commissariats and through the administrative-territorial organizations, that is, through the union republics, territories, regions, districts, etc. As a result of the measures taken, we now have 11 union republics instead of 7 union republics, instead of 14 People's Commissariats of the USSR 34 People's Commissariats, instead of 70 territories and regions, 110 territories and regions, instead of 2,559 urban and rural areas 3815. Accordingly, in the system of party governing bodies there are now 11 central committees headed by the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (b), 6 regional committees, 104 regional committees, 30 district committees, 212 citywide committees, 336 city district committees, 3.479 rural district committees and 113.060 primary party organizations.

It cannot be said that the business of downsizing organizations has already been completed. It is most likely that the downsizing will continue. But be that as it may, it is already yielding good results both in terms of improving the day-to-day Party leadership of work and in bringing the leadership itself closer to grass-roots concrete work. I'm not even talking about the fact that the downsizing of organizations made it possible to nominate hundreds and thousands of new people for leadership work.

This is also a great achievement.

2. Selection of personnel, their promotion, their placement

Regulating the composition of the party and bringing the governing bodies closer to concrete grassroots work were not and could not be the only means of further strengthening the party and its leadership. Another means of strengthening the party during the period under review was a radical improvement in work with cadres, improvement in the selection of cadres, their promotion, their placement, and their verification in the process of work.

The cadres of the party are the commanding staff of the party, and since our party is in power, they are also the commanding personnel of the leading state bodies. After the correct political line has been worked out, tested in practice, the cadres of the party become the decisive force of the party and state leadership. Having a correct political line is, of course, the first and most important thing. But this is still not enough. A correct political line is needed not for a declaration, but for implementation. But in order to implement the correct political line, cadres are needed, people are needed who understand the political line of the party, who perceive it as their own line, who are ready to put it into practice, who are able to implement it in practice and who are able to answer for it, defend it, fight for it. ... Without this, the correct political line runs the risk of remaining on paper.

This is where the question arises about the correct selection of cadres, the development of cadres, the promotion of new people, the correct placement of cadres, and their verification according to the work done. What does it mean to choose the right staff? Choosing the right staff does not mean to recruit deputies and poms for yourself, to draw up an office and issue various instructions from there. It also does not mean abusing one's power, throwing dozens and hundreds of people uselessly from one place to another and back, and orchestrating endless "reorganizations."

Choosing the right staff means:

First, to value cadres as the gold fund of the party and the state, to value them, to have respect for them.

Secondly, to know the cadres, to carefully study the merits and demerits of each cadre worker, to know in which post the employee's abilities can most easily unfold.

Third, to carefully raise personnel, to help each growing worker rise up, to spare no time to patiently "tinker" with such workers and accelerate their growth.

Fourth, on time and boldly to nominate new, young cadres, preventing them from standing in the old place, not allowing them to turn sour.

Fifthly, to arrange employees in positions in such a way that each employee feels in place, so that each employee can give our common cause the maximum that he is generally able to give in terms of his personal qualities, so that the general direction of work on the placement of personnel fully meets the requirements the political line in the name of which this arrangement is being made.

Of particular importance is the question of the courageous and timely promotion of new, young cadres. I think that our people do not yet have complete clarity on this issue. Some people think that when recruiting people, one should be guided mainly by old cadres. Others, on the contrary, think to focus mainly on young personnel. It seems to me that both are wrong. The old cadres are, of course, a great wealth for the Party and the state. They have what young cadres do not have - tremendous experience in leadership, Marxist-Leninist principled training, knowledge of the matter, the power of orientation. But, firstly, there are always few old cadres - less than necessary, and they are already partly beginning to fail due to the natural laws of nature. Secondly, one part of the old cadres sometimes has a tendency to stubbornly look into the past, get stuck on the past, get stuck on the old and not notice the new in life. This is called the loss of a sense of the new. This is a very serious and dangerous flaw. As for the young cadres, they, of course, do not have the experience, hardening, knowledge of the business and the strength of orientation that the old cadres possess. But, firstly, young cadres constitute an overwhelming majority, secondly, they are young and they are not threatened yet with failure, thirdly, they have an abundance of sense of the new - a precious quality of every Bolshevik worker, and, in- fourth, they grow and become enlightened so quickly, they twist up so rapidly that the time is not far away when they catch up with the old people, stand side by side with them and make up a worthy replacement for them. Consequently, the task is not to be guided either by the old or by the new cadres, but to keep the course towards combination, towards the unification of old and young cadres in one common orchestra of the leading work of the Party and the state.

That is why it is necessary to promptly and courageously nominate young cadres to leading positions.

One of the major achievements of the Party during the period under review in strengthening the Party leadership is that it successfully pursued from top to bottom this very course of combining old and young workers in the field of recruiting cadres.

In the Central Committee of the party there are data from which it is clear that during the reporting period the party managed to nominate more than 500 thousand young Bolsheviks, party members and affiliated to the party, to leading positions on the state and party lines, of which more than 20 percent are women. What is the task now?

The task is to take completely the matter of selection of cadres from top to bottom into one hand and raise it to the proper, scientific, Bolshevik heights.

To do this, it is necessary to end the splitting of the study, promotion and selection of personnel into different departments and sectors, concentrating it in one place.

Such a place should be the Personnel Department as part of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and the corresponding personnel department as part of each republican, regional and regional party organization.

Party propaganda. Marxist-Leninist education

party members and party cadres

There is another area of party work, very important and very responsible, through which the strengthening of the party and its governing bodies was carried out during the period under review - this is party propaganda and agitation, oral and printed, work on educating party members and party cadres in the spirit of Marxism. Leninism, work to raise the political and theoretical level of the party and its workers.

There is hardly any need to dwell on the grave significance of the cause of party propaganda, the cause of the Marxist-Leninist education of our workers. I mean not only the workers of the party apparatus. I also mean workers of the Komsomol, trade union, trade and cooperative, economic, Soviet, education, military and other organizations. The task of regulating the composition of the party and bringing the leading bodies closer to grassroots work can be satisfactorily set up; it is possible to satisfactorily organize the task of advancing cadres, their selection, their placement; but if, for some reason, our party propaganda begins to limp for some reason, if the work of the Marxist-Leninist education of our cadres begins to wither, if our work to raise the political and theoretical level of these cadres weakens, and the cadres themselves cease in this connection to be interested in the prospects of our movement forward, cease to understand the correctness of our cause and turn into hopeless businessmen who blindly and mechanically carry out instructions from above, then all our state and party work must surely decay. It must be recognized as an axiom that the higher the political level and Marxist-Leninist consciousness of workers in any branch of state and party work, the higher and more fruitful the work itself, the more effective the results of work and, conversely, the lower the political level and Marxist-Leninist consciousness of workers, the higher the more likely disruptions and failures in work, the more likely the crumbling and degeneration of the workers themselves into little money-mongers, the more likely their rebirth. It can be said with confidence that if we were able to prepare ideologically our cadres in all branches of work and temper them politically to such an extent that they could freely orientate themselves in the domestic and international situation, if we could make them quite mature Marxist-Leninists, capable of solving without serious mistakes the questions of the country's leadership, then we would have every reason to consider nine-tenths of all our questions already resolved. And we can certainly solve this problem, because we have all the means and possibilities necessary to solve it.

The cultivation and formation of young cadres in our country usually takes place in individual branches of science and technology, in their specialty. This is necessary and advisable. It is not necessary for a medical specialist to be a physicist or a botanist and vice versa. But there is one branch of science, knowledge of which should be obligatory for the Bolsheviks of all branches of science - this is the Marxist-Leninist science about society, about the laws of the development of society, about the laws of the development of the proletarian revolution, about the laws of the development of socialist construction, about the victory of communism. For it is impossible to consider a real Leninist a person who calls himself a Leninist, but who is closed in his specialty, closed in, say, mathematics, botany or chemistry and does not see anything beyond his specialty. A Leninist cannot only be a specialist in the branch of science he has chosen - he must at the same time be a public figure, keenly interested in the fate of his country, familiar with the laws of social development, able to use these laws and striving to be an active participant in the political leadership of the country. This will, of course, be an additional burden for the Bolshevik specialists. But it will be such a load, the results of which will pay off with interest.

The task of party propaganda, the task of the Marxist-Leninist education of cadres is to help our cadres in all branches of work to master the Marxist-Leninist science of the laws of the development of society.

The question of measures to improve the cause of propaganda and Marxist-Leninist education of cadres was the subject of repeated discussions by the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) with the participation of propagandists from various regional party organizations. At the same time, the publication of the "Short Course in the History of the CPSU (b)" in September 1938 was taken into account. It was found that the publication of the "Short Course on the History of the CPSU (Bolsheviks)" laid the foundation for a new scale of Marxist-Leninist propaganda in our country. The results of the work of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks were published in his well-known decree "On the organization of party propaganda in connection with the release of a short course on the history of the CPSU (b)."

Based on this resolution and taking into account the well-known decisions of the March plenum of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) in 1937 "On the shortcomings of party work", the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) outlined the following main measures to eliminate shortcomings in the field of party propaganda and improve the Marxist-Leninist education of party members and party cadres:

1. To concentrate in one place the cause of party propaganda and agitation and to unite the departments of propaganda and agitation and the press departments in a single Directorate of propaganda and agitation as part of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), with the organization of a corresponding department of propaganda and agitation as part of each republican, regional and regional party organization ;

2. Recognizing as wrong the enthusiasm for the circle system of propaganda and considering it more expedient for the party members to study the foundations of Marxism-Leninism individually, to focus attention on propaganda in the press and the organization of the lecture system of propaganda;

3. To organize in each regional center one-year retraining courses for the lower level of our personnel;

4. To organize in a number of centers of our country a two-year Lenin school for the middle level of our cadres;

5. To organize the Higher School of Marxism-Leninism under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks with a three-year course for training qualified theoretical party cadres;

6. To create in a number of centers in our country one-year retraining courses for propagandists and newspaper workers;

7. Create at High school Marxism-Leninism six-month courses for the retraining of teachers of Marxism-Leninism in universities.

There is no doubt that the implementation of these measures, which are already being carried out, but have not yet been sufficiently carried out, will not hesitate to give their good results.

4. Some questions of theory

Among the shortcomings of our propaganda and ideological work must also be attributed to the lack of complete clarity among our comrades in some questions of theory that are of serious practical importance, the presence of some confusion in these questions. I have in mind the question of the state in general, especially of our socialist state, and the question of our Soviet intelligentsia.

Sometimes they ask: “We have destroyed the exploiting classes, there are no more hostile classes in the country, there is no one to suppress, so there is no longer a need for the state, it must die away, - why are we not helping the withering away of our socialist state, why are we not trying to put an end to it? Isn't it time to throw out all this rubbish of statehood? "

Or again: “the exploiting classes have already been destroyed in our country, socialism has basically been built, we are moving towards communism, and the Marxist doctrine of the state says that under communism there should be no state, why do not we help the withering away of our socialist state? to hand over the state to the museum of antiquities? "

These questions testify to the fact that their authors conscientiously memorized certain provisions of the teachings of Marx and Engels about the state. But they also say that these comrades did not understand the essence of this doctrine, did not understand in what historical conditions certain provisions of this doctrine were developed and especially did not understand the current international situation, overlooked the fact of the capitalist encirclement and the resulting dangers for the socialist country. In these questions, there is not only an underestimation of the fact of the capitalist encirclement. They also reveal an underestimation of the role and importance of the bourgeois states and their bodies, sending spies, murderers and saboteurs to our country and trying to seize the moment for a military attack on it, as well as an underestimation of the role and importance of our socialist state and its military, punitive and intelligence agencies. organs necessary to protect the socialist country from outside attack. It must be admitted that not only the aforementioned comrades are guilty in this underestimation. In it all of us, Bolsheviks, without exception, are also sinful to a certain extent. Is it not surprising that we learned about the espionage and conspiratorial activities of the top of the Trotskyists and Bukharinites only recently, in 1937-1938, although, as can be seen from the materials, these gentlemen were spies of foreign intelligence and were conspiratorial activities already in the first days of the October Revolution? revolution? How could we have overlooked this serious matter? How can you explain this mistake? Usually the answer to this question is this: we could not imagine that these people could fall so low. But this is not an explanation, let alone an excuse, for the fact of a mistake remains a fact. How can you explain such a mistake? This blunder is explained by the underestimation of the strength and significance of the mechanism of the bourgeois states around us and their intelligence agencies, trying to use the weaknesses of people, their vanity, their spinelessness in order to entangle them in espionage networks and surround the organs of the Soviet state with them. It is explained by the underestimation of the role and significance of the mechanism of our socialist state and its intelligence, underestimation of this intelligence, chatter that intelligence under the Soviet state is a trifle and trifles, that Soviet intelligence, like the Soviet state itself, will soon have to be handed over to the museum of antiquities.

On what basis could this underestimation arise in our country? It arose on the basis of the incompleteness and inadequacy of some general provisions of the Marxist doctrine of the state. It became widespread due to our impermissibly careless attitude to the issues of the theory of the state, despite the fact that we have practical experience of twenty years of state activity, which provides rich material for theoretical generalizations, despite the fact that we have the opportunity, if we wish, to successfully fill this theoretical gap. ... We have forgotten Lenin's most important instruction about the theoretical duties of the Russian Marxists, who are called upon to develop further the theory of Marxism. Here is what Lenin says on this score:

"We do not at all look at Marx's theory as something complete and inviolable; we are convinced, on the contrary, that she laid only the cornerstones of the science that the socialists must move on in all directions if they don't want to keep up with life. We think that it is especially necessary for the Russian socialists independent development of Marx's theory, for this theory gives only general governing provisions that apply in particular to England differently than to France, to France differently than to Germany, to Germany differently than to Russia " (Lenin, Vol. II, p. 492).

Take, for example, the classical formula of the theory of the development of the socialist state given by Engels:

"When there are no social classes that need Keep in submission, when there is no domination of one class over another and the struggle for existence rooted in the modern anarchy of production, when the resulting collisions and violence are eliminated, then there will already be no one to suppress and restrain, then the need for state power, which now performs this function, will disappear ... The first act in which the state will act as the real representative of the whole of society - the conversion of the means of production into public ownership - will be its last independent action as a state. Intervention of state power in social relations will gradually become unnecessary and will stop of itself. The management of persons is replaced by the management of things and the management of production processes. The state is not "canceled", it dies off "(F. Engels, Anti-Dühring, 1933, Partizdat edition, p. 202).

Is this Engels' position correct?

Yes, that's right, but under one of two conditions: a) if conduct a study of the socialist state from the point of view of only the internal development of the country, distracting from the international factor in advance, isolating the country and the state for the convenience of research from the international situation, or b) if to assume that socialism has already won in all countries or in most countries, instead of the capitalist encirclement, there is a socialist encirclement, there is no more threat of attack from the outside, there is no longer a need to strengthen the army and the state.

Well, if socialism has won only in one, separately taken country and, in view of this, it is in no way possible to be distracted from international conditions - what to do in this case? Engels' formula does not answer this question. Engels, in fact, does not pose such a question to himself, therefore, he could not have an answer to this question. Engels proceeds from the assumption that socialism has already triumphed more or less simultaneously in all countries or in most countries. Consequently, Engels studies here not this or that particular socialist state of a particular country, but the development of the socialist state in general, assuming the fact of the victory of socialism in most countries in the formula: to undergo in this case a proletarian, socialist state. " Only this general and abstract character of the problem can explain the fact that in studying the question of the socialist state, Engels completely abstracts himself from such a factor as international conditions, the international situation.

But it follows from this that it is impossible to extend Engels' general formula about the fate of the socialist state in general to a particular and concrete case of the victory of socialism in one, separate country, which has a capitalist encirclement around it, which is subject to the threat of a military attack from outside, which cannot be distracted because of this. from the international situation and which must have at its disposal a well-trained army, and well-organized punitive organs, and strong intelligence, therefore, must have its own sufficiently strong state in order to be able to defend the gains of socialism from outside attack.

You cannot demand from the classics of Marxism, separated from our time by a period of 45-55 years, to foresee all and all cases of zigzags of history in each individual country in the distant future. It would be ridiculous to demand that the classics of Marxism work out for us ready-made solutions to all and any theoretical questions that may arise in each country after 50-100 years, so that we, the descendants of the classics of Marxism, have the opportunity to lie quietly on the stove and chew ready-made solutions. But we can and must demand from the Marxist-Leninists of our time that they do not limit themselves to memorizing certain general provisions of Marxism, that they delve into the essence of Marxism, that they learn to take into account the experience of twenty years of existence of the socialist state in our country, so that they learn, finally, relying on on this experience and proceeding from the essence of Marxism, to concretize certain general provisions of Marxism, to clarify and improve them. Lenin wrote his famous book State and Revolution in August 1917, that is, a few months before the October Revolution and the creation of the Soviet state. Lenin saw the main task of this book in defending the teachings of Marx and Engels about the state from distortion and vulgarization by the opportunists. Lenin intended to write the second part of State and Revolution, where he hoped to sum up the main results of the experience of the Russian revolutions of 1905 and 1917. There can be no doubt that Lenin had in mind in the second part of his book to develop and develop further the theory of the state, relying on the experience of the existence of Soviet power in our country. But death prevented him from completing this task. But what Lenin did not manage to do, his students must do.

The state arose on the basis of a split of society into hostile classes, arose in order to keep in check the exploited majority in the interests of the exploiting minority. The instruments of state power were concentrated mainly in the army, in the punitive organs, in intelligence, in prisons. Two main functions characterize the activity of the state: internal (main) - to keep the exploited majority in check and external (not main) to expand the territory of its own ruling class at the expense of the territory of other states or to defend the territory of its state from attacks from other states. This was the case under the slave system and feudalism. This is the case under capitalism.

To overthrow capitalism, it was necessary not only to remove the bourgeoisie from power, not only to expropriate the capitalists, but also to smash completely the state machine of the bourgeoisie, its old army, its bureaucratic bureaucracy, its police, and replace it with a new, proletarian statehood, a new, socialist state. The Bolsheviks, as you know, did just that. But it does not at all follow from this that the new, proletarian state cannot retain some of the functions of the old state, modified in relation to the needs of the proletarian state. All the more, it does not follow from this that the forms of our socialist state must remain unchanged, that all the original functions of our state must be fully preserved in the future. In fact, the forms of our state are changing and will change depending on the development of our country and changes in the external situation.

Lenin is absolutely right when he says:

"The forms of bourgeois states are extremely diverse, but their essence is one all these states are one way or another, but in the last analysis it is necessary the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie The transition from capitalism to communism, of course, cannot but give an enormous abundance and variety of political forms, but the essence will inevitably be the same dictatorship of the proletariat "(Lenin, vol. XXI, p. 393).

Since the October Revolution, our socialist state has gone through two main phases in its development.

The first phase is the period from the October Revolution to the liquidation of the exploiting classes. The main task of this period was to suppress the resistance of the overthrown classes, to organize the country's defense against attack by the interventionists, to restore industry and agriculture, and to prepare conditions for the elimination of capitalist elements. Accordingly, our state performed two main functions during this period. The first function is to suppress the overthrown classes within the country. In this way, our state outwardly resembled the previous states, whose function was to suppress the recalcitrant, with the fundamental difference, however, that our state suppressed the exploiting minority in the name of the interests of the working majority, while the previous states suppressed the exploited majority in the interests of the exploiting minority. The second function is to defend the country from outside attack. In this, it also outwardly resembled the previous states, which were also engaged in the armed defense of their countries, with the fundamental difference, however, that our state protected from external attack the gains of the working majority, while the previous states defended in such cases the wealth and privileges of the exploiting minority. There was also a third function here - this is the economic-organizational and cultural-educational work of the organs of our state, which had as its goal the development of the sprouts of a new, socialist economy and the re-education of people in the spirit of socialism. But this new function did not receive serious development during this period.

The second phase is the period from the elimination of the capitalist elements of town and country to the complete victory of the socialist economic system and the adoption of a new Constitution. The main task of this period is the organization of the socialist economy throughout the country and the elimination of the last remnants of the capitalist elements, the organization of the cultural revolution, the organization of a completely modern army for the defense of the country. The functions of the socialist state have changed accordingly. Has disappeared - the function of military suppression within the country has died out, for exploitation has been abolished, there are no more exploiters and there is no one to suppress. Instead of the function of suppression, the state acquired the function of protecting socialist property from thieves and plunders of the people's property. The function of military defense of the country from outside attack has been fully preserved, therefore, the Red Army, the Navy, as well as the punitive organs and intelligence necessary to catch and punish spies, murderers, pests sent to our country by foreign intelligence, have also survived. The function of economic-organizational and cultural-educational work of state bodies has been preserved and fully developed. Now the main task of our state within the country is peaceful economic, organizational and cultural and educational work. As for our army, punitive organs and intelligence, their edge is no longer turned inside the country, but outside it, against external enemies.

As you can see, we now have a completely new, socialist state, unseen in history and significantly different in its form and functions from the socialist state of the first phase.

But development cannot stop there. We are moving further, forward, towards communism. Will the state also survive in the period of communism?

Yes, it will remain if the capitalist encirclement is not eliminated, if the danger of a military attack from the outside is not eliminated, and it is clear that the forms of our state will again be changed in accordance with the change in the internal and external situation.

No, it will not survive and wither away if the capitalist encirclement is eliminated, if it is replaced by a socialist encirclement.

That is how matters stand with the question of the socialist state.

The second question is the question of the Soviet intelligentsia.

In this question, just as in the question of the state, there is a certain lack of clarity and confusion in our Party.

Despite the complete clarity of the party's position on the question of the Soviet intelligentsia, views that are hostile to the Soviet intelligentsia and are incompatible with the party's position are still prevalent in our party. The bearers of these wrong views practice, as is known, a disdainful, contemptuous attitude towards the Soviet intelligentsia, regarding it as a force alien and even hostile to the working class and the peasantry. True, the intelligentsia during the period of Soviet development managed to change radically both in its composition and in its position, drawing closer to the people and honestly cooperating with them, which makes it fundamentally different from the old, bourgeois intelligentsia. But these comrades, apparently, do not care about this. They continue to play the old tune, incorrectly transferring to the Soviet intelligentsia those views and attitudes that had their basis in the old days, when the intelligentsia was in the service of the landowners and capitalists.

In the old, pre-revolutionary times, under capitalism, the intelligentsia consisted primarily of people of the propertied classes - nobles, industrialists, merchants, kulaks, etc. There were also people in the ranks of the intelligentsia who came from the bourgeoisie, petty officials, and even from peasants and workers, but they did not play and could not play a decisive role there. The intelligentsia as a whole fed from the possessing classes and served them. It is therefore understandable that mistrust, which often turned into hatred, which the revolutionary elements of our country, and above all the workers, had towards her. True, the old intelligentsia produced individual units and dozens of brave and revolutionary people who took the point of view of the working class and linked their fate to the end with the fate of the working class. But there were too few such people among the intelligentsia, and they could not change the physiognomy of the intelligentsia as a whole.

The case with the intelligentsia changed, however, radically after the October Revolution, after the defeat of foreign military intervention, especially after the victory of industrialization and collectivization, when the abolition of exploitation and the establishment of the socialist economic system created a real opportunity to give the country and enforce a new Constitution. The most influential and qualified part of the old intelligentsia, already in the first days of the October Revolution, broke away from the rest of the intelligentsia, declared a struggle against Soviet power and became saboteurs. She suffered a well-deserved punishment for this, was defeated and scattered by the organs of Soviet power. Subsequently, most of the surviving of them recruited to the enemies of our country as saboteurs, as spies, thereby eliminating themselves from the ranks of the intelligentsia. Another part of the old intelligentsia, less qualified, but more numerous, continued to mark time for a long time, waiting for "better times", but then, apparently, gave up and decided to become a serviceman, decided to get along with the Soviet regime. Most of this group of the old intelligentsia has already grown old and is beginning to fail. A third section of the old intelligentsia, mainly its rank-and-file section, which had even less qualifications than the previous section, joined the people and followed the Soviet regime. She needed to finish her studies, and she really began to finish her studies in our universities. But along with this painful process of differentiation and breakdown of the old intelligentsia, there was a stormy process of formation, mobilization and gathering of the forces of the new intelligentsia. Hundreds of thousands of young people from the ranks of the working class, peasantry, and working intelligentsia went to universities and technical schools and, returning from school, filled the thinning ranks of the intelligentsia. They poured new blood into the intelligentsia and revived it in a new way, in a Soviet way. They radically changed the entire face of the intelligentsia in their own image and likeness. The remnants of the old intelligentsia were dissolved in the depths of the new, Soviet, people's intelligentsia. Thus, a new, Soviet intelligentsia was created, closely connected with the people and ready in its mass to serve them with faith and truth.

As a result, we now have a large, new, popular, socialist intelligentsia, radically different from the old, bourgeois intelligentsia both in its composition and in its socio-political appearance.

The old theory of the intelligentsia, which pointed to the need to distrust and fight against it, was quite suitable for the old, pre-revolutionary intelligentsia, which served the landowners and capitalists. Now this theory has outlived its time and it no longer fits our new, Soviet intelligentsia. For the new intelligentsia, a new theory is needed, indicating the need for a friendly attitude towards it, care for it, respect for it and cooperation with it in the name of the interests of the working class and the peasantry.

It seems clear.

It is all the more surprising and strange that after all these fundamental changes in the position of the intelligentsia, we still have people in the party who are trying to apply the old theory directed against the bourgeois intelligentsia to our new, Soviet intelligentsia, which is basically a socialist intelligentsia. These people, it turns out, assert that the workers and peasants who recently worked in the Stakhanov way at factories and collective farms, and then sent to universities for education, cease to be real people, they become second-class people. It turns out that education is a harmful and dangerous thing. We want to make all workers and peasants cultured and educated, and we will do this over time. But from the view of these strange comrades, it turns out that such an undertaking is fraught with a great danger, because after the workers and peasants become cultured and educated, they may face the danger of being enlisted in the category of second-class people. It is possible that over time, these strange comrades may sink to the glorification of backwardness, ignorance, darkness, obscurantism. This is understandable. Theoretical dislocations have never led and cannot lead to good.

That is how matters stand with the question of our new, socialist intelligentsia.

Our tasks in the field of further strengthening the party:

1. To systematically improve the composition of the party, raising the level of consciousness of party members and accepting into the ranks of the party in the order of individual selection only comrades who have been tested and devoted to the cause of communism;

2. To bring the governing bodies closer to grassroots work in order to make their management work more and more operational and concrete, less and less meeting and clerical;

3. To centralize the selection of cadres, carefully raise cadres, carefully study the merits and demerits of workers, more boldly nominate young workers, adapt the selection and placement of personnel to the requirements of the political line of the party;

4. To centralize the work of party propaganda and agitation, to expand the propaganda of the ideas of Marxism-Leninism, to raise the theoretical level and political tempering of our cadres.

Comrades! I am finishing my report.

I have outlined the path taken by our party during the period under review. The results of the work of the Party and its Central Committee during this period are known. We had shortcomings and mistakes. The Party and its Central Committee did not hide them and tried to correct them. There are serious successes and great achievements that should not turn our heads.

The main result is that the working class of our country, having abolished the exploitation of man by man and established the socialist system, has proved to the whole world that its cause is right. This is the main result, since it strengthens faith in the strength of the working class and in the inevitability of its final victory.

The bourgeoisie of all countries insists that the people cannot do without capitalists and landowners, without merchants and kulaks. The working class of our country has proved in practice that the people can successfully do without exploiters.

The bourgeoisie of all countries insists that the working class, having destroyed the old, bourgeois order, is not capable of building anything new to replace the old. The working class of our country has proved in practice that it is fully capable not only of destroying the old system, but also of building a new, better, socialist system and, moreover, a system that knows no crises or unemployment.

The bourgeoisie of all countries insists that the peasantry is incapable of taking the path of socialism. The collective farm peasantry of our country has proved in practice that it can successfully take the path of socialism.

The main thing that the bourgeoisie of all countries and its reformist henchmen are especially striving for is to eradicate in the working class faith in its own strength, faith in the possibility and inevitability of its victory, and thereby perpetuate capitalist slavery. For the bourgeoisie knows that if capitalism has not yet been overthrown and it still continues to exist, then it owes this not to its good qualities, but to the fact that the proletariat does not yet have sufficient faith in the possibility of its victory. It cannot be said that the efforts of the bourgeoisie in this direction remained completely unsuccessful. It must be admitted that the bourgeoisie and its agents in the working class succeeded to a certain extent in poisoning the soul of the working class with the poison of doubt and disbelief. If the successes of the working class of our country, if its struggle and victory serve to raise the spirit of the working class in the capitalist countries and strengthen its faith in its own strength, faith in its victory, then our party can say that it is not working in vain. There is no doubt that it will be so.

Long live our victorious working class! Long live our victorious collective farm peasantry! Long live our socialist intelligentsia! Long live the great friendship of the peoples of our country! Long live the All-Union Communist Party of the Bolsheviks!

SESSION ONE
Opening of the congress. Comrade Molotov's speech
Election of the Presidium, Secretariat, Editorial and Credentials Commissions
Approval of the order of the day and regulations
Report of Comrade Stalin on the work of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b)
SESSION TWO
Report of the Central Auditing Commission. Speaker T. Vladimirsky
Report of the delegation of the CPSU (b) to the ECCI. Speaker T. Manuilsky
SESSION THIRD
Debate on the reports: the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) - comrade Stalin, the Central Auditing Commission - comrade Vladimirsky, the delegation of the CPSU (b) in the ECCI - comrade Manuilsky
Comrade Shcherbakov's speech
Yusupova
Kuznetsova
Zadionchenko
Bagirova
Comrade Dvinsky's speech
Vlasova
Kulakova
Kvasova
SESSION FOUR
Comrade Skvortsov's speech
Andreeva
Ponomarenko
Comrade Zakharov's speech
Gray hair
SESSION FIVE
Continuation of the debate on the reporting reports: the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) - comrade Stalin, the Central Auditing Commission - comrade Vladimirsky, the delegation of the CPSU (b) in the ECCI - comrade Manuilsky
Comrade Yaroslavsky's speech
Donskoy
Comrade Beria's speech
Report of the Credentials Commission. Speaker T. Malenkov
Approval of the report of the Credentials Committee
Comrade Shakhurin's speech
Shvernik
Alemasova
Comrade Protopopov's speech
Badaeva
SESSION SIXTH
Continuation of the debate on the reporting reports: the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) - comrade Stalin, the Central Auditing Commission - comrade Vladimirsky, the delegation of the CPSU (b) in the ECCI - comrade Manuilsky
Comrade Khrushchev's speech
Shkiryatova
Nikitina
Comrade Poskrebyshev's speech 183
Voroshilov
SESSION SEVEN
Continuation of the debate on the reporting reports: the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) - comrade Stalin, the Central Auditing Commission - comrade Vladimirsky, the delegation of the CPSU (b) in the ECCI - comrade Manuilsky
Speech by Comrade Charkviani
Mikoyan
Andrianova
Comrade Pegov's speech
Chuyanova
Stern
SESSION EIGHTH
Continuation of the debate on the reporting reports: the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) - comrade Stalin, the Central Auditing Commission - comrade Vladimirsky, the delegation of the CPSU (b) in the ECCI - comrade Manuilsky
Comrade Burmistenko's speech
Kaganovich L.M
Comrade Zhavoronkov's speech
Mehlis
Speech by Comrade Shcherbakov
Adoption of a resolution on Comrade Stalin's report on the work of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b)
Adoption of a resolution on the report of the Central Auditing Commission
Speech by Comrade Burmistenko
Adoption of a resolution on the report of comrade Manuilsky on the work of the delegation of the CPSU (b) in the ECCI
SESSION NINTH
Comrade Molotov's report on the third five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR
Speech by Comrade Grizodubova (greetings from the workers of Moscow and the Moscow region)
Speech by Comrade Kartashev (greetings from the workers of Leningrad and the Leningrad region)
SESSION TEN
Comrade Paltsev's speech
Boytsova
Kornyets
Papanin
Comrade Voznesensky's speech
Shagimardanova
Pervukhina
Nikolaeva
SESSION ELEVENTH
Debate on Comrade Molotov's report on the third five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR
Comrade Merkulov's speech
Bulganin
Popkova
Pearls
Comrade Ignatov's speech
Bogdanova
Malysheva
Comrade Alexandrovskaya's speech (greetings from the workers of Belarus)
Comrade Alshevsky's speech (greetings from the workers of the Gorky region)
SESSION TWELVE
Debate on Comrade Molotov's report on the third five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR
Comrade Borkov's speech
Kalinin
Kosygin
Arutinova
Benediktova
Comrade Shpilevoy's speech
Tevosyan
Shaposhnikova
Doronin
SESSION THIRTEEN
Debate on Comrade Molotov's report on the third five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR
Comrade Popov's speech
Kaganovich M.M
Chubin
Comrade Budyonny's speech
Bakradze
Speech by Comrade Bazhan (greetings from the workers of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic)
Speech by Comrade Sakharova (greetings from the workers of the city of Ivanov and the Ivanovo region)
Speech by Comrade Belyakov (greetings from the workers of the city of Tula and the Tula region)
Speech by Comrade Shchegolev (greetings from Soviet youth and the Leninist Komsomol)
SESSION FOURTEENTH
Debate on Comrade Molotov's report on the third five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR
Comrade Frolkov's speech
Zvereva
Sholokhov
Kuznetsova
Comrade Vagov's speech
Selezneva
Kachalina
Izotova
Closing remarks by Comrade Molotov
Adoption of a decision on Comrade Molotov's report on the third five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR
Speech by Comrade Chernopyatko (greetings from the border guard troops)
Mylnikova (greetings from the USSR Navy)
Nerchenko (greetings from the cavalry units of the Red Army)
Panfilov (greetings from the armored troops of the Red Army) 505
Denisova (greetings from the Air Force of the Red Army)
Rostunov (greetings from the artillery units of the Red Army)
Rodimtseva (greetings from the rifle troops and units of other types of weapons of the Red Army)
FIFTEENTH MEETING
Changes in the charter of the CPSU (b). Speaker T. Zhdanov
Comrade Cheplakov's speech
SIXTEENTH MEETING
Debate on Comrade Zhdanov's report on amendments to the charter of the CPSU (b)
Comrade Lyubavin's speech
Chernousova
Mishakova
Boytsova
Pillow
Comrade Matveev's speech
Shtykova
Jashi
Rodionova
Patolicheva
Speech by Comrade Kuzmin (greetings from miners, metallurgists, workers of the chemical industry of the Kuznetsk coal basin)
Speech by Comrade Strelbitsky (greetings from the Murmansk sailors of the fish trawl fleet and fishermen-collective farmers of Murman)
Greetings from pioneers and schoolchildren of Moscow
SESSION SEVENTEENTH
Debate on Comrade Zhdanov's report on amendments to the charter of the CPSU (b)
Comrade Serdyuk's speech
Orlova
Mitina
Yuldasheva
Biryukova
Comrade Murugov's speech
Compatriots
Nadezhina
Vishnichenko
Khomenko
Adoption of a decision on the report of Comrade Zhdanov on amendments to the charter of the CPSU (b)
EIGHTEENTH MEETING
Report of the Commission of the XVIII Congress for consideration of amendments and additions to the theses of Comrade Zhdanov's report and amendments to the text of the Charter of the CPSU (b). Speaker Chairman of the Commission Comrade Zhdanov
Adoption of a resolution on the report of Comrade Zhdanov
Approval of the Charter of the CPSU (b)
Report of the committee of the XVIII Congress for consideration of amendments and additions to the theses of Comrade Molotov's report "On the third five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR." Speaker Chairman of the Commission Comrade Molotov
Adoption of a resolution on the report of Comrade Molotov "The Third Five-Year Plan for the Development of the National Economy of the USSR" (1938-1942)
Speech by Comrade Andreev
Election of the commission to change the program of the CPSU (b)
Speech by Comrade Amirkhanova (greetings from the workers of the Tatar ASSR)
Makarova (greetings from railroad transport workers)
Yablonsky (greetings from railroad transport workers)
Chupakova (greeting from women railway workers)
Greetings from the children of railway workers
NINETEENTH MEETING
Announcement of the results of the elections of the Central Committee and the Central Auditing Commission. - Speech by Comrade Shvernik
Closing of the XVIII Congress of the CPSU (b)
RESOLUTIONS
Resolution of the XVIII Congress of the CPSU (b) on the report of Comrade Stalin on the work of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b)
Resolution of the XVIII Congress of the CPSU (b) on the report of the Central Auditing Commission
Resolution of the XVIII Congress of the CPSU (b) on the reporting report of Comrade Manuilsky on the work of the delegation of the CPSU (b) in the ECCI
The third five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the USSR (1938-1942). Resolution of the XVIII Congress of the CPSU (b) on the report of Comrade Molotov
Changes in the Charter of the CPSU (b). Resolution of the XVIII Congress of the CPSU (b) on the report of Comrade Zhdanov
Charter of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks)
Composition of the Commission to change the program of the CPSU (b)
Composition of the Central Committee of the CPSU (b), elected by the 18th Congress of the CPSU (b)
Composition of the Central Auditing Commission elected by the 18th Congress of the CPSU (b)
ANNEXES
I. List of delegates to the XVIII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks with the right to vote
II. List of delegates to the XVIII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks with an advisory vote
III. Greetings to the XVIII Congress of the CPSU (b)
IV. Name index of speakers at the XVIII Congress of the CPSU (b)

XVIII Congress of the CPSU (b). I. Stalin. Report on the work of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks at the 18th Party Congress Speech by Voroshilov at the 18th Party Congress

Recommended to read

Site search