XIII Congress of the RCP (b)

In the summer and autumn of 1923, the first economic crisis of the NEP began in the USSR, caused by artificially inflating the prices of manufactured goods while food prices were undervalued ( see Price Scissors ). By October 1923, this phenomenon led to the fact that the peasants massively stopped buying products of industry.

By this time, V.I. Lenin had already retired, and among his closest associates a fierce struggle developed for the right to become the new leader of the party and the country. Against Leonid D. Trotsky, who was in fact the second person in the state and the commander of the Red Army, the majority of the Central Committee, led by the informal “troika” Zinoviev-Kamenev-Stalin, united. In the summer of 1923, the first movements of Trotsky’s supporters to minor posts began. Especially painful, he took the "digging" for himself in his own department - in the Red Army. Troika managed to organize a commission that found a number of flaws in the army. Under the pretext of eliminating them, the September plenum of the Central Committee of 1923 decided to expand the Revolutionary Military Council, introducing into it a number of new persons, mostly political opponents of Trotsky.

Trotsky gradually lost power, including over the army. He had no choice but to turn “through the heads” of the party leaders directly to ordinary communists, among many of whom he, at that time, still retained considerable influence, as one of the organizers of the October Revolution and the founder of the Red Army. On October 8, 1923, Trotsky wrote a letter to the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission with extensive criticism. On October 15, this criticism was developed by the “Statement of 46” (it was signed by 46 well-known party members), which Trotsky himself, however, did not sign.

The main pretext for discontent was the economic crisis unfolding in the country, as well as the inability (or unwillingness) of the majority of the Central Committee to take advantage of the revolutionary situation in Germany in 1923 due to the Ruhr conflict . In September 1923 the communist uprising in Bulgaria also failed. The revolutionary wave in Europe finally died down, and all the attempts of the Comintern headed by G. E. Zinoviev to kindle new uprisings failed (somewhat later, in December 1924, an attempt at a coup in Estonia also failed).

Letters from Trotsky and his supporters initiated a stormy inner-party discussion on the eve of the 13th Congress. This discussion demonstrated the significant support that Trotsky had among young students, especially in Moscow and Leningrad, and also in the army; however, in general, the Trotskyists did not succeed in achieving a majority among ordinary communists. Trotsky's reputation as a supporter of the militarization of labor and the organization of labor armies greatly hindered him from looking like a fighter for inner-party democracy. The first crushing defeat ensued at the October joint plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission, which recognized Trotsky’s statement as a "profound political mistake", then at the XIII party conference on January 16-18, 1924, and at the Central Plenum on January 14-15, a crushing defeat of the Trotskyists in the inner-party discussion was stated. Trotsky himself received sick leave at the most bitter moment of the discussion, and on January 18 he left for Sukhumi.

The death of Lenin on January 21, 1924 has already changed little in the inner-Party scenario; An additional blow to Trotsky’s reputation was the fact that he did not appear at the funeral.

On February 3, a regular commission reported to the Central Committee about the unsatisfactory state of affairs in the Red Army; one of Trotsky’s closest supporters, First Deputy Chairman of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic , EM Sklyansky , was removed from the post; M.V. Frunze was appointed to his place (in April 1924, N. Trotsky, commander of the Moscow Military District , was replaced by M.N. Tukhachevsky ).

From January 1924 began the " Leninist call " in the party of workers "from the machine tool"; for the most part they preferred to support and vote for Stalin. The March-April plenum of the Central Committee of 1924 hastily granted them a decisive vote in the elections to the XIII Congress of the RCP (b).

In addition, since the spring of 1924, the “purge of non-productive cells” has developed, where Trotsky’s support was greatest. Thorough preparation of the “troika” bore fruit: at the XIII Congress, he and his supporters were in a clear minority.

At the time of the events, Stalin preferred to remain on the sidelines; the main struggle unfolded between the groups of Trotsky and Zinoviev. For Zinoviev, the highest point of his political career has come; in 1923–24, it was he who for a short time actually became the new leader of the party. Demonstrating his claims to the role of Lenin’s successor, one of his closest disciples and proxies, Zinoviev spoke at the XIII (as well as at the XII) congress with the traditional political report of the Central Committee.

The role of the leading theorist of the party and the favorite of the party youth clearly shifted from Trotsky to N. I. Bukharin , who also supported Stalin.

• 1. On the provision of candidates for members of the RCP with a decisive vote in elections to the XIII Congress of the RCP (b).
• 2. Political Report of the Central Committee ( G. E. Zinoviev ).
• 3. Organizational report of the Central Committee ( J. V. Stalin ).
• 4. Report of the Central Auditing Commission ( DI Kursky ).
• 5. Report of the Central Control Commission ( V. V. Kuibyshev ).
• 6. Report of the representative office of the RCP (B.) On the Executive Committee of the Comintern ( N. I. Bukharin ).
• 7. On domestic trade and cooperation ( L. B. Kamenev )
  • a) About commodity circulation and planned work ( G. M. Krzhizhanovsky ),
  • b) On cooperation ( A. A. Andreev ).
• 8. About work in the village ( M. I. Kalinin , co-rapporteur N. K. Krupskaya ).
• 9. About work among youth ( N. I. Bukharin ).
• 10. About party organizational issues ( V. M. Molotov ).
• 11. Report on the manuscripts of K. Marx and F. Engels ( D. B. Ryazanov ).
• 12. Report on the work of the Institute of Lenin ( L. B. Kamenev ).
• 13. Election of the central institutions of the party.

The congress was opened and closed by L. B. Kamenev .

The congress began with a minute of silence according to V. I. Lenin. After the announcement of the formation of the working bodies of the congress, the departed D. Blagoev , V.P. Nogin and Y. Lutovinov were also honored.

After the announcement of the greetings to the congress, the first day of its work was completed ahead of time, the delegates went to Red Square for a general visit to the Lenin Mausoleum.

All the second day the reports of the Central Committee, the Central Design Committee and the Central Control Commission of the Party were heard. The debate on the reports began only on the third day of the congress. Trotsky and Ye. A. Preobrazhensky made great speeches, but the overwhelming majority of the delegates did not find support for their opinions.

The report of the Central Committee was approved unanimously.

Proceeding from the task of strengthening the bond between the city and the village, the congress gave an instruction to further expand the industry, primarily the light industry, while simultaneously emphasizing the need for the rapid development of metallurgy.

The congress approved the creation of the People's Commissariat of Internal Trade and set before all the trading bodies the task of mastering the market and ousting private capital from the field of trade.

The congress set the task of expanding the cheap credit of the state to the peasantry and ousting the usurer from the countryside.

As the main task of working in the village, the congress put forward the slogan of full cooperation of the peasant masses.

Finally, the congress pointed to the enormous importance of the Lenin call-up and drew the attention of the party to the strengthening of the work of training the young members of the party, above all the Lenin call-up, the basics of Leninism. ^[one]

The condemnation condemned the platform of the Trotskyist opposition, defining it as a petty-bourgeois deviation from Marxism, as an attempt to revise Leninism, and reaffirmed the resolutions of the XIII party conference "On party building" and "On the outcome of the discussion."

Interestingly, many prominent party leaders, including members of the Politburo and the Central Committee , including opposition leaders, had only advisory votes at the congress ( N. I. Bukharin , L. D. Trotsky , G. L. Pyatakov , K. B. Radek G. Y. Sokolnikov et al.). See “Verbatim Report ...”, p. 749-766.

At the end of the congress, a proposal was made to rename the RKP (b) into the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of the USSR. However, it was decided to postpone this issue to the discretion of the next party congress.

A few months before the congress, there was a discussion between the Politburo and the widow of V. I. Lenin N. K. Krupskaya on the announcement of Lenin's “Letters to the Congress” (“Testaments”) written by V. I. Lenin at the end of 1922 and supplemented in January 1923 th The Politburo, except for Trotsky, who unambiguously supported the announcement, did not resolve the issue.
However, directly before the congress, Krupskaya handed a letter to the commission on Lenin's legacy, consisting of I. V. Stalin, G. E. Zinoviev and L. B. Kamenev . May 21, 1924 , 2 days before the official opening of the congress, the letter was read out at a meeting of the Council of Elders (a non-statutory body consisting of members of the Central Committee and leaders of local party organizations).

L. B. Kamenev read Lenin's letter. Trotsky describes this event:

Radek:

“Now they dare not go against you.”

He had in mind two places of writing: one that characterized Trotsky as “the most capable person in the present Central Committee”, and the other that demanded Stalin’s removal because of his rudeness, lack of loyalty and inclination to abuse power.

I answered Radek:

- On the contrary, now they will have to go to the end, and, moreover, as soon as possible. ^[2]

Further, at this meeting, Stalin first proposed resignation:

“Well, I’m really rude ... Ilyich suggests you to find another who would differ from me only by greater politeness.” Well, try to find.

“Nothing,” answered the voice of one of Stalin’s friends at the time. - We are not afraid of rudeness, our whole party is rude, proletarian. ^[3]

L. B. Kamenev proposed to resolve the issue by voting. The majority spoke in favor of leaving Stalin at the post of general secretary; only supporters of Trotsky voted against. Then the proposal was voted that the document should be read out in closed meetings of individual delegations, while no one had the right to take notes and it was impossible to refer to the “Testament” at the meetings of the congress, the documents were not subject to reading. The delegations found it expedient to leave JV Stalin as the Secretary General of the Central Committee, contrary to Lenin’s recommendation, given that he would take this criticism into account.

Elected at the Congress

Central Committee : 53 members, 34 candidates for membership in the Central Committee

Central Control Commission : 151 people

Central Audit Commission : 3 people

Members of the Central Committee of the RKP (b) elected by the congress

Andreyev, Andrei Andreevich (1895-1971)

Antipov, Nikolai Kirillovich (1894–1938)

Bubnov, Andrei Sergeevich (1884–1938)

Bukharin, Nikolai Ivanovich (1888–1938)

Voroshilov, Clement Efremovich (1881—1969)

Dzerzhinsky, Felix Edmundovich (1877–1926)

Dogadov, Alexander Ivanovich (1888—1937)

Evdokimov, Grigory Eremeevich (1884–1936)

Zalutsky, Peter Antonovich (1887—1937)

Zelensky, Isaac Abramovich (1890-1938)

Zinoviev, Grigory Evseevich (1883–1936)

Kaganovich, Lazar Moiseevich (1893–1991)

Kalinin, Mikhail Ivanovich (1875–1946)

Kamenev, Lev Borisovich (1883-1936)

Quiring, Emmanuel Ionovich (1888–1937)

Kirov, Sergey Mironovich (1886–1934)

Kolotilov, Nikolai Nikolayevich (1885–1937)

Komarov, Nikolai Pavlovich (1886-1937)

Kosior, Stanislav Vikentievich (1889-1939)

Krasin, Leonid Borisovich (1870–1926)

Krzhizhanovsky, Gleb Maximilianovich (1872-1959)

Kubyak, Nikolay Afanasyevich (1881–1937)

Kuklin, Alexander Sergeevich (1876-1936)

Lashevich, Mikhail Mikhailovich (1884-1928)

Lepse, Ivan Ivanovich (1889–1929)

Lobov, Semen Semenovich (1888–1937)

Manuilsky, Dmitry Zakharovich (1883-1959)

Medvedev, Alexey Vasilyevich (1884–1937)

Mikoyan, Anastas Ivanovich (1895-1978)

Mikhailov, Vasily Mikhailovich (1894–1937)

Molotov, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich (1890-1986)

Nikolaev, Claudia Ivanovna (1893-1944)

Ordzhonikidze, Grigory Konstantinovich (1886–1937)

Petrovsky, Grigory Ivanovich (1878-1958)

Pyatakov, Georgy Leonidovich (1890-1937)

Rakovsky, Christian Georgievich (1873-1941)

Rudzutak, Jan Ernestovich (1887–1938)

Rumyantsev, Ivan Petrovich (1886–1937)

Rukhimovich, Moses Lvovich (1889–1938)

Rykov, Alexey Ivanovich (1881–1938)

Smirnov, Alexander Petrovich (1878–1938)

Sokolnikov, Grigory Yakovlevich (1888-1939)

Stalin, Joseph Vissarionovich (1878-1953)

Sulimov, Daniel Egorovich (1890-1937)

Tomsky, Mikhail Pavlovich (1880-1936)

Trotsky, Lev Davidovich (1879-1940)

Uglanov, Nikolai Aleksandrovich (1886–1937)

Ukhanov, Konstantin Vasilyevich (1891–1937)

Frunze, Mikhail Vasilyevich (1885-1925)

Kharitonov, Moses Markovich (1887–1948)

Tsurupa, Alexander Dmitrievich (1870-1928)

Chubar, Vlas Yakovlevich (1891-1939)

Schwartz, Isaac Izrailevich (1879-1951)

Resolutions approved and adopted

• A resolution of the Plenum of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) (March 31 - April 2, 1924 ) was approved on granting the members of the party a decisive vote in electing delegates to the XIII RCP (b) Congress:

- The decision was made in connection with the Lenin appeal to the party of a large number of candidates.

• According to the report of the Central Committee:

- approved the political line of the Central Committee in all areas of international and domestic policy;

- the congress obliged the party to continue to pursue a policy of peace, a policy of struggle against the new war;

- confirming the resolutions of the Thirteenth Party Conference "On Party-building" and "On the outcome of the discussion and on the petty-bourgeois deviation in the party", the congress condemned the platform of the Trotskyist opposition, qualifying it as a petty-bourgeois deviation from Marxism, as a revision of Leninism;

- “The congress gave the slogan of further expanding the industry, especially the light one, and also the metal ... Further expansion of the industry ... is a matter of life and death” ^[4] ;

- the congress confirmed the state monopoly of foreign trade;

- the congress confirmed the need for export in general and, above all, for the export of bread;

- the congress decided to take measures on carrying out till the end of the monetary reform;

- The congress and the subsequent plenary session of the Central Committee instructed the Organizing Bureau of the Central Committee to raise the work among working women to the proper height.

• According to the CTC report
• According to the CRC report
• According to the report of the representative office of the RCP (b) on the Executive Committee of the Comintern
• On the next tasks of party building

- the need to further increase the admission to the party of workers, improve the work of the production party cells, strengthen the party organs

• On the timing of provincial party conferences

- The periodicity of provincial party conferences was determined twice a year.

• About experience for secretaries of provincial committees

- it has been established that for secretaries of provincial committees of the party, 6-year party experience is obligatory (the obligation of the pre-revolutionary party experience has been abolished).

• About the work of control commissions

- decisions were made aimed at the struggle to improve, simplify, reduce the cost and moral recovery of the state apparatus from top to bottom; on the structure of the Central Control Commission; Party-state control bodies in the field.

• About domestic trade
• About cooperation

- by this resolution, the congress approved the creation of the Internal Trade Commissariat, set before the trade and cooperative bodies the task of dealing with private capital, the task of mastering the market, the task of ousting private capital from the trade of economic measures by lowering commodity prices and improving commodity quality the masses, the use of preferential credit, etc.

• About work in the village:

- the center of the resolution was the slogan of cooperating the peasant masses along three lines: consumer cooperation, agricultural cooperation and credit cooperation;

- “the congress gave the slogan of further expansion of the peasant economy, the slogan of helping the peasant economy in further expanding the tillage” ^[4] ;

- the congress paid special attention to the organization of a cheap loan in the countryside.

• On the cultural work in the village
• About print
• About campaigning
• About work among young people

- the task has been set of educating new cadres of workers in the spirit of the dictatorship of the proletariat and socialism;

- the tasks of the union of working and peasant youth are defined.

• Resolution "On the timing of the provincial party conferences":

- it was decided to hold conferences twice in the year in the provincial party organizations

• On the publication of the Works of K. Marx and F. Engels
• About the work of the Lenin Institute

- the congress decides to consider the institution open;

- All party organizations and party members are called upon to fully assist the Institute in collecting materials relating to the life and work of V. I. Lenin;

- The institute should become “a base for the study and dissemination of Leninism among broad party and non-party masses”.

• About work among women workers and peasant women

The main outcome of the congress was the abandonment of Joseph Stalin as secretary general. Because of the Lenin's “Testament” and the continued influence of the supporters, Leonid D. Trotsky could not be removed from the party’s governing bodies, but he remained even more isolated than before — only G. L. Pyatakov and Kh. Remained in the Central Committee . G. Rakovsky . The Lenin plan for political reform was not even discussed at the congress, the delegates limited themselves to a numerical expansion of the governing bodies of the party.

Officially, the congress noted that the implementation of the NEP justified itself and ensured success in the restoration and development of the national economy. In the field of heavy industry, the development of metallurgy as the basis for the production of the means of production and the further electrification of the country is identified as a primary task. The need was stressed for the development of light industry , without which it was impossible to achieve economic ties between town and country and create savings for heavy industry.

• Thirteenth Congress of the RCP (b) / Gorelov I. Ye. , Trubitsyn A. M. // Tikhohodki - Ulyanovo. - M .: Soviet Encyclopedia, 1977. - ( Great Soviet Encyclopedia : [in 30 t.] / Ch. Ed. AM Prokhorov ; 1969-1978, v. 26).
• History of the CPSU. V. 4. Kn. 1. M., 1970
• CPSU in resolutions and decisions of congresses, conferences and plenums of the Central Committee. 1898-1954. The eighth edition. T. 2, M., 1970.
• Rogovin V. Z. Was there an alternative. M .: Terra , 1992
• Thirteenth Congress of the RCP (b). May 1924: Verbatim Report. - M .: Gospolitizdat , 1963 - XXIV + 884 p.

• Delegates of the XIII-th Congress of the RCP (b)
• "Handbook of the history of the CPSU and the Soviet Union 1898-1965"
• "History of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) - Short Course"