The 15th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks): a word from Comrade Stalin

The 15th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). In the foreground (from left to right) Rykov, Skripnik, Stalin
I. V. Stalin. Quote from the final speech on the report
"ON THE SOCIAL-DEMOCRATIC BIAS IN OUR PARTY" at the XV All-Union Conference of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) on November 3, 1926
Today we continue the topic started in the previous materials of "Hints from the Origins" and will get acquainted with the speech of I.V. Stalin already at the XV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), where he also said a lot of interesting things. It was held in Moscow from December 2 to 19, 1927 and outlined the course for industrialization and collectivization of the country. He made a large report, in which practically all external and internal aspects of the country's life were touched upon.
Well, let's start with the general characteristics of the current moment that he gave.
Surprisingly, it sounds extremely topical, as if Stalin were talking about today, doesn't it? Apparently, stories like to repeat itself over and over again, although each time on a slightly new level. However, it gets even more interesting further on...
But today, as of January 2025, the population of the Earth is 8,2 billion people. Until the early 1970s, the world's population increased according to the hyperbolic law; but since 1988, its growth rate has slowed. Even more interesting is this data: only in 2009, for the first time in human history, the urban population finally equaled the rural population and amounted to 3,4 billion people. In 2023, 57,5% of the Earth's population lived in cities, and in 2050, according to UN forecasts, 68,6% of the world's population will live in cities.
It is a pity, however, that the percentage of generations among city dwellers is not traced. After all, yesterday's peasant with a fully formed petty-bourgeois consciousness and patriarchal mentality will not become a city dweller by moving to live in the city. That is, the generation of patriarchal consciousness already in the urban environment even in 2009 still took place. Well, during the life of comrade Stalin, this consciousness not only persisted. It dominated!
Returning to the text of his speech, we read the following:
Now we read this:
And that's exactly how it was!
At the same time it was like this:
This is explained as follows the extreme backwardness of our agricultural technology and the too low level of cultural status of the village(emphasis added by the author, V.O.), and especially by the fact that our scattered agricultural production does not have the advantages that our large-scale united nationalized industry has. Agricultural production, first of all, is not nationalized and not united, but is scattered and dispersed in pieces. It is not carried out in a planned manner and is still, for the most part, subordinated to the elements of small-scale production. It is not united and not enlarged along the lines of collectivization, in view of which it still represents a convenient field for exploitation by kulak elements. These circumstances deprive scattered agriculture of those colossal advantages of large-scale, united and planned production that our nationalized industry has."
And here, and without any comments from my side: "Finally, we have such minuses as vodka in the budget, an extremely slow pace of development of foreign trade and a lack of reserves. I think that it would be possible to begin a gradual curtailment of vodka production, introducing into the business, instead of vodka, such sources of income as radio and cinema. Indeed, why not take these most important resources into our hands and put shock people from real Bolsheviks on this matter, who could successfully inflate the matter and finally give the opportunity to curtail the business of vodka production?"
But as far as the “figures” about the quantitative growth of the working class and hired labor in general are concerned, here it is: “There were 1924 thousand hired workers (excluding the unemployed) in 25/8, and 215 thousand in 1926/27. An increase of 10%. Of these, there were 346 thousand manual workers, including agricultural and seasonal workers, in 25/1924, and 25 thousand in 5448/1926. An increase of 27%. Of these, there were 7060 thousand workers in large-scale industry in 29,6/1924, and 25 thousand in 1794/1926. An increase of 27%.
And again Stalin gave these figures without specifying what percentage of workers were city dwellers in the first, second and third generation. He did not know that this is precisely what has enormous potential significance. However, let us recall that the theory of generations appeared only in 1991.
Here we have very interesting data on the specifics of the development of the Soviet village in the 20s:
But I didn't know about this phenomenon before I carefully read the report at the congress. And in my youth, when I read it, I didn't pay attention. I. V. Stalin says:
Here you have a worker, a toolmaker, promoted to a well-known position at the plant as a capable and incorruptible person. He works for a year or two, works honestly, brings order, destroys mismanagement and wastefulness. But, working in this way, he affects the interests of some warm company of "communists", disturbs their peace. And what happens? The warm company of "communists" puts a spoke in his wheel and forces him, thus, to "move aside". "You wanted to be smarter than us, you don't let us live and make money in peace - move aside, brother."
And here is another worker, also a toolmaker, a bolt-cutting machine adjuster, who is promoted to a well-known position at the plant. He works zealously and honestly. But, by working like this, he disturbs the peace of someone. And what happens? They find a chance and get rid of the "restless" comrade. With what did this promoted comrade leave, with what feeling? Here is what:
Stalin also repeated Lenin's words that "the main thing we lack is culture, the ability to manage... Economically and politically, the NEP fully ensures our ability to build the foundation of a socialist economy. It is "only" a matter of the cultural forces of the proletariat and its vanguard."
This moment is also interesting in its own way. Stalin praises the new Soviet administrators – metalworkers Lobov and Ukhanov, as well as Komarov. However, what was the fate of this trio? You can’t envy them: Lobov eventually became the People’s Commissar of the Food Industry of the RSFSR, and in 1937 he was shot for participating in an anti-Soviet counter-revolutionary terrorist organization. Komarov was from a poor peasant family. In 1937 – a member of the Central Committee. In the same year he was shot for participating in a Trotskyist-Zinoviev anti-Soviet organization. Ukhanov was repeatedly elected as a member of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee and the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, and was a member of their Presidium. In 1923-1937 he was a member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks). He was awarded the Order of Lenin for overfulfilling the 1935 production plan for the People's Commissariat of Local Industry of the RSFSR and for his achievements in organizing production and mastering technology. In 1937, he was executed on charges of counterrevolutionary activity.
Well, which of these "revolutionary metalworkers" from the people could be counter-revolutionaries? And there was also a slogan: "Cadres decide everything!" And many of our readers on "VO" write just that - they say, "bad" people, "careerists" got into the party, and that's why it "rotted". And the party itself got rid of people who were sincerely devoted to the cause of the revolution. But since "a holy place is never empty", who came to take their place? That's the point...
And here is what Stalin himself said then about criticism:
This is precisely about the fact that we cannot move forward without critical articles about the past, as well as hushing up the past. This is not Marxist!
P.S. The example of three metal workers who managed to "regenerate" into enemies of the Soviet power in some 10 years may seem unimportant to someone for the author's conclusion. But then there is another list - "The personal composition of the Central Committee elected by the XNUMXth Congress". It does not include those who safely died of old age. There are extremely few of them. But all these "Central Committee members" and cadres of the builders of socialism received the highest measure from the "dear party". True, they were later rehabilitated. There are their biographies on the Internet. Mostly these are people from the lower classes, some had seven brothers and sisters, shed blood for the revolution. And they died in dirty basements, having received a bullet in the back of the head, or died in hard labor in the camps.
• Akulov, Ivan Alekseevich (1888-1937)
• Antipov, Nikolai Kirillovich (1894-1938)
• Bauman, Karl Janovich (1892-1937)
• Bubnov, Andrey Sergeevich (1884—1938)
• Bukharin, Nikolai Ivanovich (1888-1938)
• Gamarnik, Jan Borisovich (1894-1937)
• Goloshchekin, Filipp Isaevich (1897 – executed on October 28, 1941.)
• Dogadov, Alexander Ivanovich (1888-1937)
• Zhukov, Ivan Pavlovich (1889-1937)
• Zelensky, Isaac Abramovich (1890-1938)
• Kabakov, Ivan Dmitrievich (1891-1937)
• Kviring, Emmanuel Ionovich (1888-1937)
• Knorin, Wilhelm Georgievich (1890-1938)
• Kolotilov, Nikolai Nikolaevich (1885-1937)
• Komarov, Nikolai Pavlovich (1886-1937)
• Kosior, Joseph Vikentievich (1893-1937)
• Kosior, Stanislav Vikentyevich (1889-1939)
• Kotov, Vasily Afanasyevich (1885—1937)
• Krupskaya, Nadezhda Konstantinovna (1869-1939)
• Kubyak, Nikolai Afanasyevich (1881-1937)
• Kulikov, Yegor Fyodorovich (1891 - in February 1937, sentenced to 10 years in a labor camp. Died in prison in 1943)
• Lobov, Semyon Semyonovich (1888-1937)
• Oppokov, Georgy Ippolitovich (1888-1937)
• Lyubimov, Isidor Evstigneevich (1882-1937)
• Medvedev, Alexey Vasilievich (1884—1937)
• Mikhailov, Vasily Mikhailovich (1894-1937)
• Moskvin, Ivan Mikhailovich (1890-1937)
• Orakhelashvili, Mamia Dmitrievich (1881-1937)
• Postyshev, Pavel Petrovich (1887-1939)
• Pyatnitsky, Joseph Aronovich (1882-1938)
• Rudzutak, Jan Ernestovich (1887-1938)
• Rumyantsev, Ivan Petrovich (1886-1937)
• Rukhimovich, Moisey Lvovich (1889-1938)
• Rykov, Alexey Ivanovich (1881-1938)
• Smirnov, Alexander Petrovich (1878-1938)
• Sokolnikov, Grigory Yakovlevich (1888-1939)
• Stetsky, Alexey Ivanovich (1896-1938)
• Strievsky, Konstantin Konstantinovich (1885-1938)
• Sulimov, Daniil Egorovich (1890-1937)
• Syrtsov, Sergei Ivanovich (1893-1937)
• Tolokontsev, Alexander Fedorovich (1889-1937)
• Tomsky, Mikhail Pavlovich (1880-1936)
• Uglanov, Nikolai Alexandrovich (1886-1937)
• Ukhanov, Konstantin Vasilievich (1891-1937)
• Chubar, Vlas Yakovlevich (1891 - as an agent of German intelligence, executed in 1939)
• Chudov, Mikhail Semenovich (1893-1937)
• Schmidt, Vasily Vladimirovich (1886-1938)
To be continued ...
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