XVI Conference of the CPSU (B.)

254 delegates with a decisive and 679 with an advisory vote participated.

The order of the day :

• The five-year development plan of the national economy - speakers A. I. Rykov , G. M. Krzhizhanovsky , V. V. Kuybyshev ;
• Ways of agricultural growth and tax relief for the middle peasant - speaker M. I. Kalinin ;
• Results and immediate tasks of the fight against bureaucracy - speaker Y. A. Yakovlev ;
• On the cleaning and inspection of members and candidates of the CPSU (B.) - rapporteur E. M. Yaroslavsky

The conference was opened and closed by M.I. Kalinin .

The first five-year plan was announced in the history of the USSR (October 1, 1928 - October 1, 1933) - as a complex of carefully thought out and real tasks. The plan was subject to approval at the Fifth Congress of Soviets of the USSR (May 1929) and provided the basis for a number of measures of an economic, political, organizational and ideological nature. The main meaning and goal of the country's development was set by industrialization, the era of the “ great turning point ”. In the USSR it was necessary to expand the construction of new industries, increase the production of all types of products and begin to produce new equipment.

The measures launched throughout the country aimed at increasing the number of collective farms — in particular, Komsomol campaigns “for collectivization” and machine-tractor stations (MTS) were supported. It is announced that the complex of measures capable of raising the yield in the country “by the end of the five-year period by at least 30-35%” will be adopted as soon as possible ^[1] .

The conference set goals

in a relatively short historical period to catch up and overtake technologically and economically the advanced capitalist countries;

ensure rapid industry growth and agricultural growth;

to expand the movement of the masses for culture;

lead a further attack on the capitalist elements in the city and the village;

steadily strengthen defense.

Separately, the great role of such a form of activity as socialist competition at all levels was emphasized.

It was noted that "the kulak and Nepman will not surrender their positions without a fight ... The kulak and Nepman are supported by counter-revolutionary pests in industry" and that "the pressure of the classes alien to us caused fluctuations and vacillations in separate layers of the working class and peasantry and gave rise to an opportunist right deviation " ^[1] .

At the evening meeting on April 28, V.M. Molotov made a 2-hour report on internal party affairs (based on the materials of the joint meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee and the Presidium of the Central Control Commission on February 9 and the joint plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission). There was no debate on the report. In a resolution on the report, the conference, in particular, condemned "the withdrawal of Comrade Bukharin's group from the party’s general line towards the right deviation ."
The right-wingers were accused of "glossing over the ever-escalating crisis of capitalism, of denying the instability of capitalist stabilization" in international politics; in "surrender to the difficulties associated with the socialist reconstruction of the national economy and the aggravation of the class struggle in the USSR"; in the "slanderous statement" that the party apparatus instills bureaucracy and eliminates intra-party democracy; in "an unprecedented slander to the party about a slide towards the Trotskyist position, a slanderous attack against the party about the policy of" military feudal exploitation "of the peasantry" ^[2] .
They supported the decision to condemn the "right", to remove them from their posts (in the newspaper " Pravda ", the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions and the Comintern ), to prevent any deviations from the party lines and its decisions in speeches of individual members of the leadership and in the media.
At the plenum of the Central Committee, held immediately after the conference, Bukharin’s supporter, secretary of the Moscow City Party Committee, N. A. Uglanov, was removed from all posts (candidate for membership in the political bureau, member of the organizing bureau and secretary of the Central Committee).

The conference decided to conduct a general cleaning and verification of members and candidates for party membership. Later, as a result of purging, about 8 percent of its composition was expelled from the party.

Among the delegates to the conference, persons with pre-revolutionary experience was 28%; workers - 60%, employees - 34%, peasants - 5%; persons with a lower education - 62.7%. More than 88% of the delegates were party officials. ^[3]

• On the five-year plan for the development of the national economy
• On the ways of raising agriculture and the tax relief of the middle peasant
• On the results and immediate tasks of the fight against red tape
• On the cleaning and inspection of members and candidates of the CPSU (b)
• About internal party affairs

The Address of the conference "To all workers and working peasants of the Soviet Union" was also adopted.

• CPSU Conference

• XIV Conference of the All-Union Communist Party (b). Verbatim report. - M., 1925, State Publishing House, 336 pp.
• CPSU in resolutions and decisions of congresses, conferences and plenary sessions of the Central Committee. - M., 1954. - 7th ed. - T. 3. - S. 425-36.
• "Reference on the history of the CPSU and the Soviet Union 1898-1965"