Marx-Engels-Lenin Institute

Stalin


Chapter VII

HAVING SUCCESSFULLY ended the war against the forces of intervention, the Soviet Republic turned to the work of peaceful economic development. Four years of imperialist war and three years of civil war had reduced the country to a state of ruin. The Civil War over, the peasants began to voice discontent at the levying of all their surplus produce under the surplus-appropriation system, and to demand a sufficient supply of manufactured goods. Due to hunger and exhaustion, a section of the workers, too, began to show signs of discontent. The class enemy tried to turn the dire economic distress of the country to his own ends.

The Party was confronted with the necessity of working out a new line of policy on all questions affecting the economic life of the country. It was clear to the Central Committee that, the war over and peaceful economic development having begun, the system of War Communism no longer served its purpose. The need for the surplus-appropriation system had passed, and it was now necessary to allow the peasants to dispose of the greater part of their surplus produce at their own discretion. This would make it possible to revive agriculture and trade, to restore industry, to improve supplies to the towns and to create a new foundation, an economic foundation, for the alliance of the workers and peasants.

But there were groups within the Party that tried to obstruct the adoption of the new policies. At the end of 1920, these anti-Party groups forced a controversy on the Party, known as the trade union discussion. Actually this discussion was of much broader import than the trade union question. The real point at issue was the policy to be adopted towards the peasantry, the policy of the Party towards the masses of non-Party workers, and the Party’s approach in the new situation to the masses generally. The Trotskyites proposed “tightening the screws” of War Communism. Their treasonable policy of naked coercion and dictation was designed to set the non-Party worker masses against the Party, and to endanger the very existence of the Soviet regime. Their lead was followed by other anti-Party groups, such as the “Workers’ Opposition,” the “Democratic Centralists” and the “Left Communists.”

Shoulder to shoulder with Lenin, Stalin consistently pursued and upheld the Party line, breaking down the obstructions of all these enemies of the Party. He directed the organization of the fight against the anti-Leninist groups during the trade union discussion, rallying the Party around Lenin’s platform. It was Stalin who received the reports on the progress of the fight for the Party line in the various localities. It was he who sent regular reports to the Pravda on the results of the discussion in the local organizations, results which signalized a victory for the Party and the defeat of the anti-Leninist groups.

An important factor in securing the victory of the Party line and in rallying the Party around Lenin and the Leninist majority on the Central Committee was the publication in Pravda, on January 19, 1921, of Stalin’s article, “Our Differences.” Lenin and Stalin together defended the unity of the Party against all attacks of the anti-Party factions and groups.

Thus, it was united on Lenin’s principles that the Party came to its Tenth Congress, which met in March-April 1921, to discuss the next steps in the victorious advance of the revolution. The Congress reviewed the trade union discussion, and by an overwhelming majority endorsed Lenin’s platform. It adopted the momentous decision to replace the surplus-appropriation system by a tax in kind, and to introduce the New Economic Policy, of which Lenin was the author and inspiration. The adoption of the New Economic Policy ensured a durable alliance of the working class and the peasantry for the building of Socialism.

This same prime object was served by the decision of the Congress on the national question. The report on “The Immediate Tasks of the Party in Connection with the National Problem” was made by Stalin.

Stalin’s report, and the Congress resolution, gave a clear and precise formulation of the basic practical measures needed to solve the national problem. National oppression had been abolished, Stalin declared, but that was not enough. The evil heritage of the past had to be abolished—the economic, political and cultural backwardness of the formerly oppressed peoples; they had to be helped to catch up with Central Russia. Stalin called upon the Party to combat dominant-nation chauvinism, Great-Russian chauvinism, which was the chief danger, and likewise local nationalism.

At its Eleventh Congress (March-April 1922) the Party reviewed the results of the first year of the New Economic Policy. These results were such as to entitle Lenin to declare at the Congress:

“We retreated for a whole year. We must now say in the name of the Party: ‘Enough!’ The purpose which the retreat pursued has been achieved. This period is drawing, or has drawn, to a close. Now our object comes to the front to regroup our forces.”1

The historic tasks set by Lenin at the Congress had now to be carried out. On Lenin’s motion, the Plenum of the Central Committee, on April 3, 1922, elected Stalin, Lenin’s faithful disciple and associate, General Secretary of the Central Committee, a post at which he has remained ever since.

The wound sustained by Lenin in the attempt made on his life in 1918, and the constant strain of overwork, undermined his health and from the end of 1921 he was forced to absent himself from his work more and more frequently. The main burden of the work of guiding the affairs of the Party fell upon the shoulders of Stalin.

At this period Stalin was busily engaged in the great work of forming the national Soviet republics, and then of amalgamating all the Soviet republics into one federal state—the U.S.S.R. On December 30, 1922, the First All-Union Congress of Soviets, on the motion of Lenin and Stalin, passed the historic decision on the voluntary amalgamation of the Soviet nations to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics—the U.S.S.R. 1n his report at the Congress Stalin said:

“This day marks a turning point in the history of the Soviet Government. It places a landmark between the old period, now past, when the Soviet republics, although they acted in common, yet each followed its own path and was concerned primarily with its own preservation, and the new period, already begun, when an end is being put to the isolated existence of each of the Soviet republics, when the republics are being amalgamated into a single federal state in order successfully to cope with economic General Secretary of the Central Committee, a post at which he has remained ever since.

The wound sustained by Lenin in the attempt made on his life in 1918, and the constant strain of overwork, undermined his health and from the end of 1921 he was forced to absent himself from his work more and more frequently. The main burden of the work of guiding the affairs of the Party fell upon the shoulders of Stalin.

At this period Stalin was busily engaged in the great work of forming the national Soviet republics, and then of amalgamating all the Soviet republics into one federal state—the U.S.S.R. On December 30, 1922, the First All-Union Congress of Soviets, on the motion of Lenin and Stalin, passed the historic Decision on the voluntary amalgamation of the Soviet nations to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics—the U.S.S.R. In his report at the Congress Stalin said:

“This day marks a turning point in the history of the Soviet Government. It places a landmark between the old period, now past, when the Soviet republics, although they acted in common, yet each followed its own path and was concerned primarily with its own preservation, and the new period, already begun, when an end is being put to the isolated existence of each of the Soviet republics, when the republics are being amalgamated into a single federal state in order successfully to cope with economic disruption and when the Soviet Government is concerned not only with its preservation, but with developing into an important international power, capable of influencing the international situation and of modifying it in the interests of the toilers.”2

The formation of the U.S.S.R. was a cardinal victory for the national policy of Lenin and Stalin. It was built on the unshakable foundation of the new confidence in the great Russian nation conceived by the peoples formerly oppressed by tsardom, on the firm foundation of the mutual friendship of the peoples of the Soviet Land.

In April 1923 the Party held its Twelfth Congress. This was the first congress since the October Socialist Revolution that Lenin did not attend, being prevented by illness. All the recommendations made by Lenin in his latest articles and letters were embodied in its decisions. The Congress administered a vigorous rebuff to those who sought to represent NEP as a retreat from Socialist principles and who would have the country place its neck under the yoke of capitalism. It condemned the treacherous and capitulatory proposals of the Trotskyites and Bukharinites.

At this Congress Stalin made the report on the organization work of the Central Committee, and another on “Nationals Factors in Party and State Development.” In the first report he gave a broad picture of the Party’s activities, of its growth, and of the growing strength of the transmission belts from the Party to the masses (the trade unions, the Y.C.L., the Soviets, etc.), reviewed the results of the two years of NEP and indicated the lines of further development. Concluding his report, he said: “Our Party has remained solid and united; it has stood the test of a momentous turn, and is marching on with flying colours.”3

The national question was one of the principal items at the Congress. In his report on this question Stalin stressed the tremendous international significance of the Soviet national policy, and pointed out that the subject nations of the East and West looked on the Soviet Union as a model solution of the national problem. He said that energetic measures were needed to put an end to economic and cultural inequality among the peoples of the Soviet Union, and called upon the Party to put up a determined fight against Great-Russian chauvinism and local nationalism, which had gained ground with the partial revival of capitalism. He denounced the Georgian nationalist deviators, who were being supported by the Trotskyites.

Hardly had the Twelfth Party Congress come to a close when a serious menace to the Soviet Union loomed on the horizon. The arch-reactionary elements of the bourgeoisie who had come to power in Britain and France, true to their policy of armed intervention against the Soviet Union, tried to organize a new crusade against the Soviet Union. But under Stalin’s leadership the Party emerged from this critical situation with flying colours and gained a resounding victory on the diplomatic front. By 1924 all the bigger European capitalist states had changed their tune from threats and ultimatums to recognition of the U.S.S.R. “The fact that we emerged from our difficulties then without detriment to our cause,” Stalin said later, “undoubtedly shows that Comrade Lenin’s disciples had already learned a thing or two from their master.”4

The Thirteenth Party Conference met in January 1924. Stalin delivered a report reviewing the discussion. The Trotskyites received severe condemnation from the Conference. Its decisions were endorsed by the Thirteenth Party Congress (May 1924) and the Fifth Congress of the Comintern (summer, 1924).

On January 21, 1924, Lenin, the leader and founder of the Bolshevik. Party, the leader of the working people of the whole world, passed away in the village of Gorki, near Moscow. The banner of Lenin, the banner of the Party, was taken up and carried on by Lenin’s distinguished disciple, Stalin—the finest son of the Bolshevik Party, Lenin’s worthy successor and the great continuator of his cause.

At a special memorial session of the Second All-Union Congress of Soviets, which met on January 26 to honour the memory of Lenin, Stalin made a solemn vow in the name of the Party:

“We Communists are people of a special mould. We are made of a special stuff. We are those who form the army of the great proletarian strategist, the army of Comrade Lenin. There is nothing higher than the honour of belonging to this army. There is nothing higher than the title of member of the Party whose founder and leader is Comrade Lenin. . . .

“Departing from us, Comrade Lenin adjured us to hold high and guard the purity of the great title of member of the Party. We vow to you, Comrade Lenin, that we will fulfil your behest with credit!. . . .

“Departing from us, Comrade Lenin adjured us to guard the unity of our Party as the apple of our eye. We vow to you, Comrade Lenin, that this behest, too, we will fulfil with credit!. . . .

“Departing from us, Comrade Lenin adjured us to guard and strengthen the dictatorship of the proletariat. We vow to you, Comrade Lenin, that we will spare no effort to fulfil this behest, too, with credit!. . . .

“Departing from us, Comrade Lenin adjured as to strengthen with all our might the alliance of the workers and the peasants. We vow to you, Comrade Lenin, that this behest, too, we will fulfil with credit! . . . .

“Comrade Lenin untiringly urged upon us the necessity of maintaining the voluntary union of the nations of our country, the necessity for fraternal co-operation between them within the framework of the Union of Republics.

“Departing from us, Comrade Lenin adjured us to consolidate and extend the union of Republics. We vow to you, Comrade Lenin, that this behest, too, we will fulfil with credit! . . . .

“More than once did Lenin point out to us that the strengthening of the Red Army and the improvement of its condition is one of the most important tasks of our Party. . . . Let us vow then, comrades, that we will spare no effort to strengthen our Red Army and our Red Navy. . . .

“Departing from us, Comrade Lenin adjured us to remain faithful to the principles of the Communist International. We vow to you, Comrade Lenin, that the will not spare our lives to strengthen and extend the union of the toilers of the whole world—the Communist International!. . .”5

This was a vow of the Bolshevik Party to its teacher and leader, Lenin, whose memory will live through the ages. And under Stalin’s leadership, the Party has faithfully adhered to its vow.

On the first anniversary of Lenin’s death, Stalin wrote the following in a letter to the newspaper Rabochaya Gazeta:

“Remember, love and study Lenin, our teacher and leader.

“Fight and vanquish the enemies, internal and foreign—as Lenin taught us.

“Build the new life, the new way of existence, the new culture—as Lenin taught us.

“Never refuse to do the little things, for from little things are built the big thing’s this is one of Lenin’s important behests.”6

The Soviet people have never forgotten these words and are following them faithfully.

The enemies of Socialism took advantage of Lenin’s illness and then of his death to try to turn the Party from the Leninist path and thus pave the way for the restoration of capitalism in the Soviet Union. Foremost in the attack on the Party were Trotsky, that arch-enemy of Leninism, and his henchmen. The Trotskyites forced a new discussion on the Party. In the bitter fight that ensued, Stalin laid bare the underlying political meaning of the Trotskyites’ attacks and showed that it was the life and death of the Party that was at stake. He mustered the Party forces for the defeat of Trotskyism.

“It is the duty of the Party to bury Trotskyism as an ideological trend,” said Stalin in a speech at a meeting of the Party members on the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions in November 1924. He made it clear to the Party that in the existing conditions of the time Trotskyism was the chief danger.

“Today,” he declared, “after the victory of the October Revolution, under the present conditions of NEP, Trotskyism must be regarded as the most dangerous trend, for it strives to instil a lack of faith in the forces of our revolution a lack of faith in the alliance of the workers and peasants, a lack of faith in the conversion of NEP Russia into a Socialist Russia.”7

Stalin made it clear that unless Trotskyism was ideologically demolished, the continuation of the victorious advance towards Socialism could not he ensured.

“Unless Trotskyism is defeated,” he declared, “it will be impossible to achieve victory under the conditions of NEP, it will be impossible to convert present-day Russia into a Socialist Russia.”8

In the battle against Trotskyism, Stalin rallied the Party around the Central Committee and mobilized it to continue the struggle for the victory of Socialism in the Soviet Union.

A most effective weapon in demolishing Trotskyism ideologically, and in defending, explaining and developing Leninisin was Stalin’s theoretical work, The Foundations of Leninism, published in 1924. A masterly exposition and profound theoretical substantiation of Leninism, it armed the Bolsheviks, as it arms them today ally over the world, with the trenchant weapon of Marxist-Leninist theory.

This work explains the principles of Leninism, that is, of everything new and distinctive associated with the name of Lenin, everything that he contributed to the development of Marxist theory. The mere fact that the problems of Leninism had been generalized, that Lenin’s entire ideological legacy had been systematized and examined from the angle of the new period in history, was in itself a tremendous stride in the development of the science of Marxism-Leninism. In this work every. aspect of Lenin’s teachings is treated from a high theoretical level. We are given a classical definition of Leninism, and are shown how Lenin developed Marxism in conformity with the conditions of a new era, the era of imperialism and proletarian revolutions.

The restoration of the national economy was nearing completion. Both the foreign and home affairs of the Soviet Union were now on a different footing. In the capitalist countries a temporary ebb in the tide of revolution and a temporary, partial stabilization of capitalism had set in. In the U.S.S.R. the pre-war economic level had been reached. It was now necessary to advance farther. And the question arose in all its urgency—what were the prospects for further development, what would be the destiny of Socialism in the Soviet Union?

With the farsightedness of genius, Stalin defined these prospects and mapped the definite paths for the further development of the revolution.

“My wish for the workers of the Dynamo Plant, and for the workers of all Russia,” he wrote in 1924, “is that industry may forge ahead, that the number of proletarians in Russia may increase in the near future to twenty or thirty million; that collective farming in the countryside may thrive and gain predominance over individual farming; that a highly developed industry and collective farming may finally weld the proletarians of the factories and the labourers of the soil into a single Socialist army; that the victory in Russia may be crowned by victory all over the world.”9

Stalin drew general theoretical conclusions from the experience of the Great October Socialist Revolution and from the experience of the first years of Socialist construction in the midst of a capitalist encirclement, and upheld and developed Lenin’s doctrine of the victory of Socialism in one country.

In December 1924 appeared Stalin’s “The October Revolution and the Tactics of the Russian Communists,” in which, explaining and substantiating Lenin’s thesis regarding the victory of Socialism in one country, he showed that this question must be viewed from two aspects: the domestic and the international. The domestic aspect involved the class relations within the country that was building Socialism; the international aspect involved the relations between the U.S.S.R.—so far the only Socialist country—and the surrounding capitalist world. The workers and peasants of the U.S.S.R. were fully capable of coping with the internal difficulties; they were fully capable of vanquishing their own bourgeoisie economically and building up a complete Socialist society. But so long as the country was surrounded by a capitalist world, the danger of capitalist intervention and of the restoration of capitalism in the U.S.S.R. would persist. In order to eliminate this danger, it would be necessary to destroy the capitalist encirclement, and that could result only from a victorious proletarian revolution in at least several countries. Only then could the victory of Socialism in the U.S.S.R. be considered complete and final.

These theses were embodied in the historic resolution of the Fourteenth Party Conference (April 1925), which endorsed the Lenin-Stalin line of working for the victory of Socialism in the U.S.S.R. as a law of the Party, binding on all its members.

Reporting to a meeting of Moscow Party functionaries on “The Work of the Fourteenth Conference of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks),” Stalin stressed the necessity of drawing the middle peasants into the work of building Socialism:

“The main task at present is to rally the middle peasants around the proletariat, to win them over to our side again. The main task at present is to link up with the main masses of the peasantry, to raise their material and cultural level, and to move over together with these main masses along the road to Socialism. The main task is to build Socialism together with the peasantry, absolutely together with the peasantry, and absolutely under the leadership of the working class, for the leadership of the working class is the fundamental guarantee that our work of construction will proceed along the path of Socialism.”10

In December 1925 the Party held its Fourteenth Congress. In the political report which Stalin delivered on behalf of the Central Committee, he drew a vivid picture of the growing political and economic might of the Soviet Union. But, he said, these achievements were not enough, for the country was still a backward, agrarian country. In order to ensure the economic independence of the country and strengthen its defensive power, and in order to create the necessary economic base for the victory of Socialism, the country had to be converted from an agrarian into an industrial country.

Addressing the Fourteenth Congress, the leader of the Party declared:

“The conversion of our country from an agrarian into an industrial country able to produce the machinery it needs by its own efforts that is the essence, the basis of our general line.”11

The capitulators, Zinoviev and Kamenev, tried to oppose Stalin’s plan of Socialist industrialization with a “plan” of their own, under which the U.S.S.R. was to remain an agrarian country. This was a treacherous scheme to enslave the U.S.S.R. and deliver it, bound hand and foot, to the imperialist vultures.

Stalin tore the mask from these despicable capitulators and exposed their Trotskyite-Menshevik souls.

The prime task of the Party, Stalin emphasized at the Fourteenth Congress, was to ensure a durable alliance between the working class and the middle peasantry for the construction of Socialism.

The Congress endorsed Socialist industrialization and the fight for the victory of Socialism in the U.S.S.R. as the fundamental task of the Party.

Shortly after the Congress, at the beginning of 1928, Stalin published his book, On the Problems of Leninism. In this historic work, he demolished the Zinovievite “philosophy” of liquidation and capitulation and proved that the policy adopted by the Fourteenth Party Congress, namely, the Socialist industrialization of the country and the construction of a Socialist society, was the only correct one. He armed the Party and the working class with an indomitable faith in the victory of Socialist construction.

The Bolshevik Party, mustering its forces and resources, and brushing aside all capitulators and sceptics, led the country to a new historical phase—the phase of Socialist industrialization.

In this fight against the sceptics and capitulators, the Trotskyites, Zinovievites, Bukharinites and Kamenevites, there was welded together, after Lenin’s incapacitation, that leading core of the Party consisting of Stalin, Molotov, Kalinin, Voroshilov, Kuibyshev, Frunze, Dzerzhinsky, Kaganovich, Orjonikidze, Kirov, Yaroslavsky, Mikoyan, Andreyev, Shvernik, Zhdanov, Shkiryatov and others—that held aloft the great banner of Lenin, rallied the Party behind Lenin’s behest, and led the Soviet people onto the broad road of industrialization and collective agriculture. The leader of this core and the guiding force of the Party and the state was Stalin.

Although he performed his task of leader of the Party and the people with consummate skill and enjoyed the unreserved support of the entire Soviet people, Stalin never allowed his work to be marred by the slightest hint of vanity, pride or self-conceit. When interviewed by the German, writer, Emil Ludwig, Stalin paid glowing tribute to Lenin’s genius in transforming Russia, but of himself he simply said: “As to myself, I am merely a pupil of Lenin, and my aim is to be a worthy pupil of his.”12

 

Notes

1.  V. I. Lenin, Selected Works, Vol. IX, p. 340, Moscow, 1937.

2.  J. Stalin, Marxism and the National and Colonial Question, p. 114, Moscow, 1940.

3.  History of the C.P.S.U.(B.), p. 274.

4.  J. Stalin, On the Opposition. Articles and Speeches 1921-1927, Russ. ed., Moscow, p. 74.

5.  Stalin on Lenin, pp. 29-36, Moscow, 1946.

6.  Ibid.

7.  J. Stalin, The Peasant Question. Articles and Speeches, 1926, p. 55.

8.  Ibid.

9.  G. K. Orjonikidze, Selected Speeches and Articles 1911-1937, Russ. ed., p. 450, Moscow, 1938.

10.  J. Stalin, Leninism, Vol. I, p. 173, Moscow-Leningrad, 1934.

11.  History of the C.P.S.U.(B.), p. 276, 1945.

12.  Stalin on Lenin, p. 68, Moscow, 1946.



Next: Chapter VIII