8th Congress. Eighth Congress of the RCP

EIGHTH CONGRESS OF THE RCP

(b) - took place from March 18 to March 23, 1919 in Moscow. There were 301 delegates with a casting vote and 102 with an advisory vote, representing 313,766 people. parties. Order of the day: 1) Report of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) (speaker V.I. Lenin); 2) Program of the RCP(b) (speakers V.I. Lenin and N.I. Bukharin); 3) Creation of Communist. International (speaker G. E. Zinoviev); 4) Martial law and military policy (speaker G. Ya. Sokolnikov); 5) Work in the countryside (speaker V.I. Lenin, speaker in the agrarian section V.V. Kuraev); 6) Organization questions (speaker G. E. Zinoviev); 7) Elections of the Central Committee.

The work of the congress was led by V.I. Lenin. The congress took place in a difficult and complex civil situation. wars and foreign interventions. Lenin dedicated his first word to the memory of Ya. M. Sverdlov. In the report of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), Lenin highlighted foreign issues. and internal politics and organization party work. Lenin emphasized the need to further strengthen the Soviets. state, the Red Army, the comprehensive strengthening of the alliance of the working class with the peasantry, the importance of developing and adopting a new party program that illuminates the path to building socialism. Having discussed the report of the Central Committee, the congress unanimously approved its activities.

The main focus of the congress was on the issue of a new party. program. As a result of the victory, the socialist. revolution in October In 1917, the main tasks set by the party program of 1903 were completed. The party faced new tasks: strengthening the dictatorship of the proletariat, socialist. construction. The draft Program of the RCP(b), prepared by Lenin and adopted by the program commission elected at the VII Congress, consisted of two main sections: general (theoretical) and a section in which the party’s tasks for the entire transition period from capitalism to socialism were formulated. The first, theoretical, section of the program contained an assessment of Oct. revolution and its international meaning, a description was given of the simple commodity economy of capitalism, imperialism, contradictions that inevitably lead to the proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the task of cohesion and unity of the revolutionaries was put forward. actions of proletarians of all countries, the need to fight opportunism and centrism was emphasized. The second section formulates the specific tasks of the Communist. parties in the transition period from capitalism to socialism - in the field of political, military, judicial, economic, national. relationships, adv. education, religion relations, p. x-va, distribution, money and banking, finance, housing, labor protection, social security and people. healthcare.

Lenin's draft program was adopted by the program commission elected at the VII Party Congress, but due to disagreements in the program commission, two speakers spoke at the VIII Congress: from the majority of the commission - Lenin and from the minority - Bukharin.

In his report, Bukharin proposed excluding from the program the description of simple commodity goods and industrial products. capitalism, retaining only the analysis of imperialism. He viewed imperialism not as the last stage in the development of capitalism, but as a special socio-economic. formation, defended the anti-Marxist thesis about the so-called. "pure imperialism". He will conclude in his own. In his speech at the congress on the issue of the program, Lenin proved the complete theoretical failure and politics the harmfulness of Bukharin's views. Lenin pointed out that “pure” imperialism has never existed anywhere and will never exist. Imperialism is a superstructure over the old, pre-monopolistic. capitalism. The position of Bukharin and his supporters, who defended the demand to exclude from the program the characteristics of small commodity farming (cross. farming), led to the denial of the role of the middle peasant as an ally of the working class in socialism. construction, to divert attention from the fight against the kulaks. N.I. Bukharin, G.L. Pyatakov, L.B. Sunitsa opposed the program item on the right of nations to self-determination, up to the state. departments. They stated that the party should not defend the right of nations to self-determination, since a nation is not only the proletariat, but also the bourgeoisie. Bukharin and Pyatakov put forward the slogan: “The right of the working people to self-determination.” Objecting to Bukharin and Pyatakov, V.I. Lenin pointed out that in order to implement this slogan it would be necessary for the proletariat in every nation to fully realize their class. interests different from the bourgeoisie, and separated from it. Lenin said that such a process occurs in the depths of every nation, but nowhere except Russia has it ended. Every nation should have the right to self-determination and this will promote self-determination of the working people. The congress unanimously supported Lenin. Party program for national issue, defending the principle of internationalism, rallied the working people in the fight against tsarism, the bourgeoisie, and against internal enemies. and ext. in the construction of socialism.

Lenin's program for resolving national the issue also had a huge international meaning. Lenin more than once pointed out that when drawing up and adopting the Communist program. the party must keep in mind its international, international. character. As long as colonies and semi-colonies exist, national ones will exist. oppression. Consequently, the slogan about the right of colonies and unequal nations to self-determination up to the state. secession is revolutionary and abandoning it would be in the hands of the imperialists.

After Lenin’s final speech, the congress decided to accept the draft desk presented by Lenin. program as a basis and transfer it to the congress commission for graduation. editing. The program commission, headed by V. I. Lenin, included: G. E. Zinoviev, N. I. Bukharin, I. V. Stalin, L. B. Kamenev, G. Ya. Sokolnikov, G. L. Pyatakov, E A. Preobrazhensky, M. P. Tomsky, P. G. Smidovich, A. S. Bubnov. Lenin chaired all meetings of the commission. The Congress unanimously approved the Program of the RCP(b), which armed the party with a clear prospect of the struggle to build socialism. The program adopted by the VIII Congress was the guiding document of the Communist Party. party until the Twenty-Second Congress of the CPSU (1961), at which a new Program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, a program for the construction of communism, was adopted.

The question of the military occupied an important place in the work of the congress. The situation of the country and the military. Communist politics parties. Basic provisions of the military. politics Communist. the parties were developed by Lenin. In accordance with the theses approved by the Central Committee of the RCP (b), in Sokolnikov’s report on the military. The issue justified the need to put an end to the methods of the volunteer period in the construction of the Red Army, partisanship in the troops and to create a real regular workers' cross. an army with iron discipline; the correctness of the policy of using old military forces in the Red Army was confirmed. specialists under the strict control of the Communist. parties through the military system. commissioners; it was proposed to strengthen in every possible way the training of command cadres from workers and peasants, to strengthen the party political. organs and increase communist. influence in the Red Army. When discussing the issue of military construction against the line of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) the so-called. "military opposition". The "Military Opposition" spoke out against the use of old military units. specialists in command positions, citing a number of cases of their betrayal; against the introduction of regulations and instructions, in which the old spirit of the tsarist army was supposedly resurrected; Essentially this meant resistance to the establishment of firm discipline and internal discipline in the army. routine. The decision of the congress was to discuss the military. the issue was transferred to the military. section. Then the military. The issue was discussed at a closed meeting of the congress. Lenin spoke at this meeting in defense of the theses of the Central Committee and against the “military opposition”. With all decisiveness, he condemned the “military opposition”, which rejected centralized control in the Red Army and defended partisanship. Lenin paid great attention to strengthening discipline and emphasized the important role of commissars and parties. political apparatus in the training and education of owls. warriors 174 delegates voted for the resolution of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), and 95 delegates voted for the resolution of the “military opposition”. In connection with this ratio of votes, a conciliation commission was created. The resolution presented by the commission was adopted by the congress unanimously with one abstention. Decisions of the VIII Congress on Military Affairs. issue were of great importance for the construction and strengthening of the Red Army.

The congress paid special attention to the issue of attitude towards the middle peasantry. In his report “On Work in the Village,” Lenin substantiated the need to reconsider the attitude towards the middle peasant. In the first months, the socialist. revolution, the middle peasantry wavered in its attitude towards the Sov. power, and therefore the party pursued a policy of neutralizing the middle peasants. But the party’s policy in the countryside, which contributed to the middleization of the peasantry, the successes of the Red Army, the strengthening of the Soviets. the authorities caused a turn of the middle peasantry, who became the central figure in the village, towards the Sov. authorities. That's why Lenin made the resolution. “On the attitude towards the middle peasantry”, adopted by the VIII Congress, determined the new line of the party along the cross. question: to be able to reach an agreement with the average peasant, without even for a moment giving up the fight against the kulaks and firmly relying on the poor peasants. A resolution “On political propaganda and cultural and educational work in the countryside” was also adopted. Congress decisions on the cross. issue were of great importance for strengthening the alliance of the working class and the peasantry. They helped the Sovs win. republics during the civil years. war, the strengthening of the dictatorship of the proletariat, the cause of building socialism.

When discussing organizational issue (about party and Soviet construction, about the leading role of the party in the Soviets) against the organizational. The party's policy was opportunistic. group of T. Sapronov - N. Osinsky - M. Minkov. She denied the leading role of the party in the Soviets, spoke out for the merger of the Council of People's Commissars with the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and for decentralization. construction of organs of the Sov. authorities. The Congress gave a decisive rebuff to the opportunists. In the resolution on the party. construction emphasized the need for further growth of the party due to the span. elements of the city and countryside, improving the social composition of the party, strengthening the party’s connection with the masses. In the area of ​​owls. construction it was proposed to strictly observe and implement the owls. democracy. The Congress pointed out the need to strengthen the leadership role of the Communist Party. parties in the work of the Soviets. Congress decisions on org. issues contributed to strengthening the ranks of the party, strengthening the connection between the party and the masses.

The Congress welcomed the creation of the 3rd Communist International and joined its platform. On behalf of the congress, Lenin spoke on the radio with greetings to the Hungarian Council. republic.

The Congress established the structure of the Central Committee of the RCP(b) (the Central Committee is organized by the Politburo, the Organizing Bureau, and the Secretariat). A decision was made on the position of the desks. org-tions of the republics. The federal principle of party building was rejected. The existence of a single system was recognized as necessary: ​​centralization. Communist parties with a single Central Committee. At the congress, a Central Committee consisting of 19 members and 8 candidate members of the Central Committee and an audit commission consisting of 3 people were elected.

Lit.: Lenin V.I., VIII Congress of the RCP (b) March 18-23, 1919, Works, 4th ed.. vol. 29, p. 121-201; Eighth Congress of the RCP(b). Protocols, M., 1959; Khrushchev N.S., On the Program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Report at the XXII Congress of the CPSU October 18. 1961, M., 1961; History of Citizens wars in the USSR, vol. 4, M., 1959, p. 39-49; Kotlovanov P.V., Development and adoption of the party program at the VIII Congress of the RCP (b), "VI CPSU", 1959, No. 2; Kuzmin N.P., The military question at the VIII Party Congress, ibid., 1958, No. 6; Ignatiev V., Eighth Congress of the RCP (b), M., 1955; his, Preparation of the second party program and its adoption at the VIII Congress of the RCP (b), in the collection: On the program of the CPSU, part 1, M., 1961.

V. L. Ignatiev. Moscow.

Soviet historical encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet Encyclopedia. Ed. E. M. Zhukova. 1973-1982 .

See what the "EIGHTH CONGRESS OF THE RCP" is in other dictionaries:

The Eighth Congress of the RCP (b) took place from March 18 to March 23, 1919 in Moscow. There were 301 delegates with a casting vote and 102 with an advisory vote, representing 313,766 party members. By the beginning of 1919, a network of party organizations had been created, built with... ... - Great October Socialist Revolution of 1917. Formation of the Soviet Socialist State The February bourgeois-democratic revolution served as the prologue to the October Revolution. Only socialist revolution... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

- (“Military Opposition”), a group of delegates of the Eighth Congress of the RCP(b) (See Eighth Congress of the RCP) (1919), which opposed the line of the Party Central Committee in military development. In "V. O." included V. M. Smirnov, G. I. Safarov, G. L. Pyatakov, A. S. Bubnov, Em.... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

A group of delegates to the Eighth Congress of the RCP(b) (1919), who opposed the use of old military equipment. specialists in command positions in the Red Army, against unity of command, against the introduction of Charters and instructions, which essentially meant resistance... Soviet historical encyclopedia

- (Group of “Democratic Centralism”) one of the opportunist anti-Leninist groups in the RCP (b), which arose in early 1919 and took shape in 1920 from the remnants of the “Left Communists” faction defeated by the party (See Left Communists). Led by G. “d... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

EIGHTH CONGRESS OF THE RCP(B) MOSCOW, MARCH 18 - 23, 1919

The VIII Congress of the RCP(b) was of great importance. The new Party Program he adopted was a program for the construction of socialism. The decisions of the congress contributed to the strengthening of the military-political alliance of the proletariat and the peasantry, the strengthening of the Red Army, which ensured the success of the further struggle against the interventionists and the White Guards.

Composition of the Congress Delegates with a casting vote 301 Delegates with an advisory vote 102 314 thousand party members were represented at the congress, including almost 30 thousand from army party organizations. Main issues on the agenda of the congress Report of the Central Committee Program of the RCP(b) About the Communist International Martial law and military policy Work in the countryside Organizational issues

We are confident that in a number of countries where we have many more allies and friends than we know, a simple translation of our program will be the best answer to the question of what the Russian Communist Party, which represents one of the detachments of the world proletariat, has done. Our program will be the strongest material for propaganda and agitation, it will be the document on the basis of which the workers will say: “Here are our comrades, our brothers, here is our common cause.”

V. I. Lenin (Works, vol. 29, p. 198)

To be able to reach an agreement with the average peasant - without for a moment giving up the fight against the kulaks and firmly relying only on the poor - this is the task of the moment, because right now a turn in our direction among the middle peasantry is inevitable...

V. I. Lenin (Works, vol. 28, p. 171)

Resolution of the VIII Congress of the RCP(b) “On the attitude towards the middle peasantry”

By the unanimous and quick decision of the congress, we outlined a line on a particularly necessary and particularly difficult question, which in other countries is considered even insoluble - the question of the relationship of the proletariat, which overthrew the bourgeoisie, to the average multimillion-dollar peasantry. We are all confident that this congress resolution will strengthen our power.

V. I. Lenin (Works, vol. 29, pp. 198 - 199)

Resolution of the VIII Congress of the RCP(b) "On the military issue"

• THE RISE OF THE NATIONAL LIBERATION MOVEMENT IN CHINA AFTER THE GREAT OCTOBER SOCIALIST REVOLUTION
  • China by the beginning of modern times
  • The influence of the Great October Socialist Revolution on China. "May 4th Movement" 1919
    • The influence of the Great October Socialist Revolution on China. "May 4th Movement" 1919 - page 2
  • Beginning of Soviet-Chinese negotiations
  • Formation of the Chinese Communist Party
  • Strengthening imperialist expansion
  • Labor movement in 1922-1923 2nd Congress of the CPC
  • The activities of Sun Yat-sen. Preparation of a united national revolutionary front
  • III Congress of the CPC. First Kuomintang Congress. Creating a United Front
    • III Congress of the CPC. First Kuomintang Congress. Creating a United Front - Page 2
  • Sino-Soviet Agreement of 1924
  • Situation in Northern China. Shantuan rebellion in Guangzhou. Feng Yu-hsiang's coup in Beijing
  • Worker and peasant movement in 1924 - early 1925 IV Congress of the CPC
    • Worker and peasant movement in 1924 - early 1925 IV Congress of the CPC - page 2
• REVOLUTION 1925-1927
  • "May 30 Movement". General strikes in Shanghai and Hong Kong
  • Completion of the unification of Guangdong. Strengthening the struggle within the united front
  • The Northern Expedition and the New Rise of the Revolution
  • The second stage of the Northern Expedition. Uprisings of the Shanghai proletariat
  • Counter-offensive of the imperialists and Chinese reaction. Coups in East and South China
  • Continuation of the revolution in Central China. 5th Congress of the CPC
  • Continuation of the Northern Expedition. Workers' and peasants' movement in the Wuhan region
  • Defeat of the revolution of 1925-1927. and its significance in Chinese history
• ESTABLISHMENT OF THE KUOMINDAN REGIME. REVOLUTIONARY STRUGGLE IN CHINA UNDER THE SLOGAN OF THE SOVIETS (1927-1937)
  • Beginning of the Soviet movement (1927-1931)
    • The beginning of the Soviet movement (1927-1931) - page 2
  • Development of a new line of the CCP with the help of the Comintern. 6th CPC Congress
  • The formation of the Kuomintang regime
  • Domestic and foreign policy of the Nanjing government in 1928-1931.
  • Revolutionary movement in China in 1928-1931.
    • Revolutionary movement in China in 1928-1931. - page 2
  • Left-adventurist bias in the CPC (1930)
  • Reflection of three Kuomintang campaigns by the Red Army
  • Capture of Northeast China by Japanese imperialism
  • Political and economic situation in China in 1931-1935. Policy of the Nanjing government
    • Political and economic situation in China in 1931-1935. Nanjing Government Policy - Page 2
  • Liberation and revolutionary struggle of the Chinese people
    • Liberation and revolutionary struggle of the Chinese people - page 2
  • The struggle of the Red Army against the fourth campaign of the Kuomintang. Improving fighting tactics
  • Fifth campaign of the Kuomintang. Abandonment of the territory of the Central Soviet region by units of the 1st Front
  • Increased Japanese aggression in Northern China. The rise of the Chinese people's national liberation struggle
  • VII Congress of the Comintern and the turn in the politics of the CPC
    • VII Congress of the Comintern and the turn in the politics of the CPC - page 2
• NATIONAL LIBERATION WAR AGAINST JAPANESE IMPERIALISM (1937-1945)
  • Advance of Japanese troops. Deployment of armed resistance of the Chinese people (July 1937 - October 1938)
  • Creation of an anti-Japanese united national front
  • Resistance forces behind Japanese lines and the creation of Liberated Areas
  • International situation and foreign policy of China at the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War
  • Internal political struggle in China
  • Strategic calm in the Chinese theater of operations. The disintegration of the Kuomintang regime and the growth of the revolutionary forces of the Chinese people (November 1938 - February 1944)
  • Japanese colonial policy in China
  • Strengthening reactionary tendencies in the Kuomintang. Worsening relations between the CCP and the Kuomintang
  • Features of the development of the CPC during the war with Japan
  • The final stage of the Anti-Japanese War (March 1944 - September 1945)
    • The final stage of the anti-Japanese war (March 1944 - September 1945) - page 2
  • Entry of the Soviet Union into the war against imperialist Japan. Completion of the Chinese people's liberation war
• CHINA AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR. CIVIL WAR 1946-1949 AND THE VICTORY OF THE PEOPLE'S REVOLUTION
  • Negotiations between the CPC and the Kuomintang (August 1945 - June 1946)
  • Negotiations on the unification and democratization of China
  • The brewing of a pan-Chinese civil war. Decision of the CPC Central Committee of May 4, 1946
  • Civil war on a nationwide scale. Kuomintang offensive (July 1946 - June 1947)
  • Political and economic crisis of the Kuomintang regime
  • Democratic movement in the Kuomintang rear
  • Strengthening the Liberated Areas
  • The offensive of the People's Liberation Army. Victory of the People's Revolution in China (July 1947 - September 1949)
  • Political and economic program of the CCP
  • CCP policy in cities. Attitude towards the working class. The formation of a united people's democratic front
  • Decisive battles at the end of 1948 - beginning of 1949. Peace negotiations. Crossing of the Yangtze
  • Victory of the people's revolution. Proclamation of the People's Republic of China
• CHINA'S TRANSITION TO THE PATH OF SOCIALIST DEVELOPMENT (1949-1957)
  • Recovery period. Completion of bourgeois-democratic transformations of 1949-1952.
    • Recovery period. Completion of bourgeois-democratic transformations of 1949-1952. - page 2
  • Foreign policy. Relations with the USSR
  • Agrarian reform
  • Economic recovery. Class struggle in the city
  • The first five-year plan. Beginning of socialist industrialization (1953-1957)
  • Assistance of the Soviet Union in the socialist construction of the PRC
  • “The Case of Gao Gang - Zhao Shu-shi” and the “campaign against counter-revolution”
  • Cooperation of the peasantry. Nationalization of private industry and trade. Mao Zedong's attempt to revise the general line of the CCP
    • Cooperation of the peasantry. Nationalization of private industry and trade. Mao Zedong's attempt to revise the general line of the CCP - page 2
  • “Movement to correct the style in the party” and “struggle against bourgeois right-wing elements”
  • Results of the first five-year plan
• CHANGES IN THE COURSE OF THE CPC LEADERS IN DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN POLICIES
  • "The Great Leap Forward" (1958-1960)
  • Meeting in Beidaihe. "The Great Leap Forward". "Communization" of the village
    • Meeting in Beidaihe. "The Great Leap Forward". "Communization" of the village - page 2
  • Foreign policy
  • Speeches against Mao's course at the 8th Plenum of the CPC Central Committee
  • The period of “settlement” (1961-1965). The actual abandonment of the “leap” policy. 9th Plenum of the CPC Central Committee
  • Dissatisfaction with the policies of Mao's group
  • Struggle within the CCP regarding China's development path
    • Struggle within the CCP regarding China's development path - page 2
  • National economy of the People's Republic of China in 1963-1965.
  • The schismatic activities of the Mao Zedong group in the socialist community and the world communist movement
  • Extensive attack on the CCP during the Cultural Revolution (1965-1969)
    • Extensive attack on the CCP during the Cultural Revolution (1965-1969) - page 2
  • Rampant Maoist terror (“Red Guards”)
  • The course is to “seize power” and “unite the three sides.” Creation of "revolutionary committees". Role of the Army
  • Preparations for the creation of a Maoist party
  • 9th Congress of the Communist Party of China
  • Strengthening the anti-Soviet activities of Mao Zedong's group during the Cultural Revolution
• CONCLUSION

8th Congress of the Communist Party of China

The VIII Congress of the CPC took place in September 1956, 11 years after the VII Congress. Over 1000 delegates took part in its work. The 8th Congress of the CPC was a major event in the life of the Chinese people. He summarized the experience of the leading force of the working masses of the PRC over a long period when the bourgeois-democratic revolution was victorious in China and the first successes were achieved in the development of the country along the path of socialism.

The CPC came to the VIII Congress as the largest political party, numbering 10,730 thousand members and candidates. The working stratum in it increased to 14%, but the CPC continued to remain predominantly peasant in composition: by 1956, peasants made up 69% of its population, the intelligentsia - 12, others - 5%. Such a composition could not but affect its ideology, politics and practical work. As the events of 1955-1956 showed, petty-bourgeois, nationalist tendencies in the CPC continued to exist and develop, and sometimes even prevailed over proletarian, internationalist tendencies.

The future fate of socialism in China depended on the final result of the struggle between these two tendencies. The outcome of this struggle could not but affect the interests of the entire international communist movement, the fraternal parties that sent their representatives to the VIII Congress of the CPC.

The balance of forces in the CPC and the country, the situation in the world communist movement then developed in such a way that they allowed the healthy forces of the party to prevail at the congress, capable of correctly solving the most complex theoretical and practical problems of building socialism in a huge underdeveloped country, resisting the powerful pressure of petty-bourgeois elements and Great Han chauvinism .

Despite the atmosphere of the personality cult of Mao Zedong created in previous years, the congress was dominated by the desire to objectively understand previous achievements and mistakes, soberly assess existing opportunities and difficulties, and determine the prospects for the country's development on a scientific basis.

In the main reports and speeches of many delegates, as well as in the decisions of the congress, there was a call for “modesty and prudence”, for the deployment of criticism and self-criticism; they condemned “arrogance, arbitrariness, rudeness, conceit, reluctance to consult with the masses, imposing one’s opinion on others, defending mistakes in order to maintain their authority.” This approach allowed the congress to make decisions that truly reflected the objective domestic and international conditions for the construction of socialism in China.

The VIII Congress heard and discussed the political report of the CPC Central Committee (Liu Shao-chi), reports on changes in the party charter (Deng Xiaoping), and proposals for the second five-year plan for the development of the national economy (Zhou Enlai), adopted relevant decisions and elected the governing bodies of the party. The main thing in the decisions of the congress was that it confirmed the correctness of the general line of the CPC in 1952 and thereby actually condemned Mao Zedong’s attempts to revise it.

At the same time, the congress did not openly criticize the events held in 1955-1956. under pressure from Mao Zedong and running counter to the general line. In essence, the congress was presented by Mao Zedong's group with a fait accompli. Pointing to the major successes achieved, the resolution allowed for a reassessment of the results of transformations in the economic system of the PRC. Thus, it was said that in China “the contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie has basically been resolved and a socialist social system has been created.”

The congress put forward the socialist industrialization of the country as the main goal of the economic policy of the CPC and the state in order to create the necessary material basis for the technical reconstruction of the national economy and raising the living standards of the people. At the same time, the congress, considering the Chinese economy as part of a unified economic system of the world socialist community, indicated that the development of industry in the PRC will be of great importance “for strengthening cooperation between the countries of the socialist camp, for promoting the general rise of the economy of all socialist countries.”

The congress gave instructions for the comprehensive development of the national economy in order to prevent unjustified acceleration of the development of some industries to the detriment of others, the emergence of dangerous imbalances and disruption of the country's economic organism. Having confirmed the course towards the primary development of heavy industry, the congress at the same time emphasized the need to “actively develop light industry,” transport, trade, as well as “make even more efforts to develop agriculture” and ensure a “gradual improvement in the lives of the people.”

The congress paid much attention to the development of all areas of culture, education and health care. Major measures were envisaged to eliminate illiteracy. Of fundamental importance were the instructions of the congress that, along with the enhanced development of domestic science and technical thought, “it is necessary to widely apply the new successes of science and technology of the Soviet Union, people's democracies and other countries of the world.”

The congress’s warning that “coercion and willfulness in relation to science and art through administrative measures is erroneous” was also very relevant. Emphasizing the need to continue to criticize feudal and bourgeois ideology, the congress at the same time noted that it is necessary to “inherit and absorb everything useful from the past culture of our country and the culture of foreign countries.”

All these most important provisions of the economic and cultural policy of the CPC were specified in the proposals adopted by the congress for the second five-year plan for the development of the national economy of the PRC. The plan planned, in particular, to double industrial production compared to the targets of the first five-year plan for 1957. The targets of the second five-year plan as a whole were sufficiently justified economically and corresponded to the real conditions and level of economic development of the PRC. The implementation of the broad economic program developed by the congress was supposed to be carried out by using all of China's internal resources in combination with the help of the Soviet Union and other developed socialist countries.

As stated in the resolution, thanks to this, China received the opportunity to develop the productive forces of its country at a high rate. At the same time, the congress considered it necessary to specifically warn the CPC and the people about the danger of a “leftist” adventurist overestimation of the country’s real capabilities: “We must also take into account the objective limitations that currently exist in the field of economics, finance and technical forces, and take into account the need to constantly maintain reserve forces , we must not deviate from the correct balance in economic development. If we do not take this situation into account and set too high a pace, then this, on the contrary, will hinder the development of the economy and the implementation of the plan and will be an opportunistic mistake.” The events of 1958 and subsequent years fully confirmed the correctness and timeliness of this warning.

Thus, on basic economic issues, the congress took a position directly opposite to the adventurist course of the group

Mao Zedong opposed this course with a scientifically grounded, thoughtful, realistic program for building socialism in China.

The same applies to the decisions of the congress on issues of state and party building, and foreign policy. Problems of further strengthening the people's democratic system and developing socialist democracy occupied a significant place in the work of the congress. The congress came to the conclusion that since the socialist revolution in China was “basically completed,” the economic, organizational and educational functions of the state came to the fore, although the functions of suppressing the resistance of the exploiting classes and defending the country continued to be preserved.

Under these conditions, the further expansion of socialist democracy acquired even greater importance. In the reports and speeches of the delegates at the congress, deep concern was voiced about the widespread spread in China of such phenomena alien to the socialist system as bureaucracy, naked administration, arbitrariness and lawlessness. The congress pointed out the need to strengthen control over the activities of state bodies on the part of party organizations, people's assemblies, representatives, as well as the broad working masses.

Major shortcomings were revealed in the work of state and party bodies in the national regions. Great Khan chauvinism posed a particular danger in the national question. “The Party,” stated the new charter of the CPC, “opposes any chauvinistic deviation, both large nationalism and local nationalism, which impede the unity of nationalities; special attention must be paid to preventing and overcoming Great Han chauvinism among party members and employees of government institutions of Han nationality.”

Issues of the international situation were discussed at the congress.

The reports of Liu Shao-chi on the work of the Central Committee of the CPC, Zhou Enlai on proposals for the second five-year plan for the development of the national economy, in the speeches of Peng Te-huai and other delegates, in the documents adopted by the congress, noted the great importance of assistance to China from the USSR and other socialist countries Mao Zedong said the same thing in his opening speech. The congress resolution obliged the Central Committee of the CPC to “continue to strengthen and strengthen the eternal and indestructible fraternal friendship with the great Soviet Union and all people's democracies.”

The congress confirmed the foreign policy course of the PRC, based on strengthening the unity of the countries of the socialist commonwealth, a decisive struggle for peaceful coexistence, against the imperialist policy of aggression and war. The congress’s concern for strengthening the international solidarity of communists was reflected in the new charter, which stated that the CPC “strengthens the solidarity of proletarian internationalism, studies the experience of the world communist movement, supports the struggle of communists, progressive elements and the working people of all countries, aimed at ensuring the progress of mankind, educates its members in the spirit of internationalism, expressed in the call “Workers of all countries, unite!”

A distinctive feature of the Eighth Congress of the CPC was special attention to issues of party life and party building, to overcoming and preventing dangerous petty-bourgeois, nationalist tendencies in the party. The CCP enjoyed great prestige among the masses. Party organizations existed in all corners of the country; they worked in the midst of the people and were closely connected with them. In the struggle to implement the general line of the CPC, the ideological level of the party increased, its ranks grew, and previously weak ties with the working class were strengthened. At the same time, strong non-proletarian tendencies in the party were revealed at the congress, which served as a great obstacle to its work. The main danger for the CPC continued to be the pressure of the petty-bourgeois elements.

Mao Zedong's cult of personality caused serious damage. The report on changes to the CPC charter said that “the cult of personality as a social phenomenon has had a long history, and it could not help but find some reflection in our party and public life. Our task is to resolutely continue to implement the policy of the Central Committee, directed against the protrusion of the individual, against his glorification.”

The congress removed from the CPC charter the reference to “Mao Zedong Thought” as the ideological basis of the party. The new charter of the CPC stated: “The Communist Party is guided in its activities by Marxism-Leninism. Only Marxism-Leninism correctly explains the laws of development of society and correctly indicates the path to building socialism and communism.”

The congress considered one of the biggest shortcomings of the internal party life of the CPC to be the systematic violation of the deadlines for convening party congresses and plenums of the Central Committee. In the 11 years between the VII and VIII Congresses, only six plenums of the CPC Central Committee took place. A similar situation has arisen in local party organizations. As a consequence of these gross violations of internal party democracy, clerical and bureaucratic methods of leadership, administration, bloating of the apparatus, arrogance, suppression of criticism and persecution for it became widespread.

However, criticism of the shortcomings in the life of the party associated with the personality cult of Mao Zedong was softened at the congress by a number of reservations and justifications. Thus, having mentioned in the report on changes in the party charter about the violation of the deadline for convening party congresses, Deng Xiaoping immediately made a reservation that “the lack of regular convening of party congresses did not have a serious impact on internal party democracy.” At the same time, he referred to a number of meetings, which, as he said, “to a large extent served as party conferences and even congresses.” This formulation of the question weakened criticism of violations of Leninist norms of party life.

Elsewhere in the report it was noted that the CCP “rejects the alien deification of the individual.” And as proof, they cited the adoption by the 2nd Plenum of the CPC Central Committee (March 1949) “at the proposal of Comrade Mao Zedong” of a decision prohibiting the celebration of anniversaries of party leaders and the naming of localities, streets and enterprises after them. Criticism of Mao Zedong's subjectivism was conducted in a muted manner, weakened by references from a number of speakers to his “wise leadership,” and was not supported by a deep analysis of the causes of mistakes and negative phenomena.

The ambiguity and inconsistency in raising the issue of the cult of personality was associated with the great influence of Mao Zedong in the party and country, with the reluctance or inability of other CPC leaders to speak out openly and decisively. Nevertheless, the general direction of the work and decisions of the Eighth Congress of the CPC contributed to limiting the spread of the personality cult of Mao Zedong.

The new charter of the CPC, adopted by the congress, was intended to serve the same purpose. The charter emphasized the need for strict adherence to the principle of democratic centralism and the broad development of intra-party democracy, criticism and self-criticism. The charter attached particular importance to the introduction of a system of collective leadership in all party bodies.

In addition, new provisions were introduced into the charter that increased the requirements for party members and at the same time expanded their rights. The charter paid serious attention to maintaining the purity of the ranks of the party, increasing the ideological and theoretical level of all its members, and strict adherence by all party members, regardless of their position, to state laws and norms of communist morality.

Consistent implementation of the decisions of the Eighth Congress of the CPC could ensure China's further progress along the path of socialism, opening up new opportunities for the growth of the country's productive forces by taking advantage of the advantages of socialist forms of economy and, on this basis, improving the financial situation of the broad masses of working people.

But despite the decisions of the Eighth Congress of the CPC, Mao Zedong’s group did not abandon its plans to replace Marxism-Leninism with Maoism, proletarian internationalism with chauvinism, and the scientifically based general line of the party with voluntaristic attempts to jump over the necessary stages of socialist construction.

Program
Russian Communist Party
(Bolsheviks)

The October Revolution (October 25, November 7, 1917) in Russia implemented the dictatorship of the proletariat, which began, with the support of the poor peasantry or semi-proletariat, to create the foundations of a communist society. The course of development of the revolution in Germany and Austria-Hungary, the growth of the revolutionary movement of the proletariat in all advanced countries, the spread of the Soviet form of this movement, i.e., one that is aimed directly at the implementation of the dictatorship of the proletariat, all this showed that the era of world proletarian, communist revolution.

This revolution was an inevitable result of the development of capitalism, which still dominates in most civilized countries. Our old program correctly, apart from the inaccurate name of the Social Democratic party, characterized the nature of capitalism and bourgeois society in the following provisions:

“The main feature of such a society is commodity production on the basis of capitalist production relations, in which the most important and significant part of the means of production and circulation of goods belongs to a small class of people, while the vast majority of the population consists of proletarians and semi-proletarians, forced by their economic situation constantly or periodically sell their labor power, i.e., become mercenaries to the capitalists, and with their labor create income for the upper classes of society.

“The area of ​​domination of capitalist production relations is expanding more and more as the constant improvement of technology, increasing the economic importance of large enterprises, leads to the displacement of small independent producers, turning some of them into proletarians, narrowing the role of others in socio-economic life and in some places placing them into more or less complete, more or less obvious, more or less severe dependence on capital. The same technological progress also gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to increasingly use female and child labor in the production and circulation of goods. And since, on the other hand, it leads to a relative decrease in the need of entrepreneurs for the living labor of workers, the demand for labor necessarily lags behind its supply, as a result of which the dependence of hired labor on capital increases and the level of its exploitation increases.

“This state of affairs within bourgeois countries and their constantly intensifying mutual rivalry on the world market make it more and more difficult to sell goods produced in ever-increasing quantities. Overproduction, manifested in more or less acute industrial crises, followed by more or less long periods of industrial stagnation, is an inevitable consequence of the development of productive forces in bourgeois society. Crises and periods of industrial stagnation, in turn, further ruin small producers, further increase the dependence of wage labor on capital, and even more quickly lead to a relative and sometimes absolute deterioration in the position of the working class.

“Thus, the improvement of technology, which means an increase in labor productivity and an increase in social wealth, causes in bourgeois society an increase in social inequality, an increase in the distance between the haves and have-nots and an increase in the insecurity of existence, unemployment and various kinds of deprivation for ever wider sections of the working masses.

“But as all these contradictions inherent in bourgeois society grow and develop, the dissatisfaction of the working and exploited masses with the existing order of things also grows, the number and unity of the proletarians grows and their struggle with their exploiters intensifies. At the same time, the improvement of technology, concentrating the means of production and circulation and socializing the labor process in capitalist enterprises, is increasingly creating the material possibility of replacing capitalist production relations with communist ones, that is, that social revolution, which represents the ultimate goal of all international communist activity. party, as a conscious exponent of the class movement of the proletariat.

“By replacing private ownership of the means of production and circulation with public property, and introducing the planned organization of the socially productive process to ensure the well-being and all-round development of all members of society, the social revolution of the proletariat will destroy the division of society into classes and thereby liberate all oppressed humanity, since it will put an end to all types of exploitation one part of society to another.

“A necessary condition for this social revolution is the dictatorship of the proletariat, that is, the conquest by the proletariat of such political power that will allow it to suppress all resistance of the exploiters. Setting itself the task of making the proletariat capable of fulfilling its great historical mission, the international communist party organizes it into an independent political party opposed to all bourgeois parties, directs all manifestations of its class struggle, exposes to it the irreconcilable opposition of the interests of the exploiters to the interests of the exploited and clarifies to it the historical significance and necessary conditions of the upcoming social revolution. At the same time, it reveals to the rest of the working and exploited masses the hopelessness of its position in capitalist society and the need for a social revolution in the interests of its own liberation from the oppression of capital. The party of the working class, the Communist Party, calls into its ranks all sections of the working and exploited population, because they switch to the point of view of the proletariat.”

The process of concentration and centralization of capital, destroying free competition, led at the beginning of the 20th century to the creation of powerful monopolistic unions of capitalists - syndicates, cartels, trusts - which acquired decisive importance in all economic life, to the merger of banking capital with industrial capital of enormous concentration and to increased export capital to foreign countries. The trusts, covering entire groups of capitalist powers, began the economic division of the world, already divided territorially between the richest countries. This era of finance capital, which inevitably intensifies the struggle between capitalist states, is the era of imperialism.

This inevitably leads to imperialist wars, wars for markets, for areas of investment of capital, for raw materials and for labor, that is, for world domination and for power over small and weak nationalities. This is exactly what the first great imperialist war of 1914-1918 was like.

And an extremely high degree of development of world capitalism in general; and the replacement of free competition with state-monopoly capitalism; and the preparation by banks, as well as capitalist unions, of an apparatus for social regulation of the process of production and distribution of products; and, in connection with the growth of capitalist monopolies, the increase in the cost of living and the oppression of the syndicates over the working class, its enslavement by the imperialist state, the gigantic difficulty in the economic and political struggle of the proletariat; and the horrors, disasters, and ruin generated by the imperialist war - all this made the collapse of capitalism and the transition to a higher type of social economy inevitable.

The imperialist war could not end not only in a just peace, but also in general in the conclusion of any lasting peace by the bourgeois governments. At the reached stage of development of capitalism, it inevitably turned and is turning before our eyes into a civil war of the exploited working masses with the proletariat at their head against the bourgeoisie.

The growing pressure from the proletariat and especially its victories in individual countries strengthen the resistance of the exploiters and cause on their part the creation of new forms of international association of capitalists (League of Nations, etc.), which, organizing on a global scale the systematic exploitation of all peoples of the earth, their closest efforts are directed towards the direct suppression of the revolutionary movements of the proletariat of all countries.

All this inevitably leads to a combination of civil war within individual states with revolutionary wars of both defending proletarian countries and oppressed peoples against the yoke of the imperialist powers.

Under these conditions, the slogans of pacifism, international disarmament under capitalism, arbitration courts, etc. are not only a reactionary utopia, but also a direct deception of the working people, aimed at disarming the proletariat and distracting it from the task of disarming the exploiters.

Only a proletarian, communist revolution can lead humanity out of the dead end created by imperialism and imperialist wars. Whatever the difficulties of the revolution and its possible temporary failures or waves of counter-revolution, the final victory of the proletariat is inevitable.

This victory of the world proletarian revolution requires complete trust, the closest fraternal alliance and the greatest possible unity of revolutionary action of the working class in the advanced countries.

These conditions are not achievable without a decisive break in principle and a merciless struggle against that bourgeois perversion of socialism, which won victory at the top of the official Social Democratic and Socialist parties.

Such a perversion is, on the one hand, the trend of opportunism and social chauvinism, socialism in words, chauvinism in deeds, covering up the defense of the predatory interests of one’s national bourgeoisie with the false slogan of defense of the fatherland, both in general and especially during the imperialist war of 1914-1918. This trend was created by the fact that advanced capitalist states, robbing colonial and weak peoples, enable the bourgeoisie, at the expense of the super-profits obtained by this robbery, to put them in a privileged position and thus bribe the top of the proletariat, provide them with a tolerable petty-bourgeois existence in peacetime and hire them themselves the leaders of this layer. Opportunists and social chauvinists, being servants of the bourgeoisie, are direct class enemies of the proletariat, especially now that, in alliance with the capitalists, they are suppressing with armed force the revolutionary movement of the proletariat both in their own and in foreign countries.

On the other hand, the bourgeois perversion of socialism is the current of the “center,” observed equally in all capitalist countries, which oscillates between social chauvinists and communists, defending unity with the former and trying to revive the bankrupt Second International. The leader of the proletariat’s struggle for its liberation is only the new, Third, Communist International, one of whose detachments is the RCP. This International was actually created by the formation of communist parties from the truly proletarian elements of the former socialist parties in a number of countries, and especially in Germany, and was formally founded in March 1919 at its first congress in Moscow. The Communist International, which is gaining more and more sympathy among the masses of the proletariat of all countries, not only returns to Marxism in its name, but also with all its ideological and political content, and with all its actions, implements the revolutionary teaching of Marx, cleansed of bourgeois-opportunist perversions.

Developing more specifically the tasks of the proletarian dictatorship in relation to Russia, the main feature of which is the numerical predominance of the petty-bourgeois strata of the population, the RCP defines these tasks as follows:

In the field of general political

1. A bourgeois republic, even the most democratic, sanctified by the slogans of the popular, national or non-class will, inevitably remained in reality - due to the fact that there was private ownership of land and other means of production - a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, a machine for the exploitation and suppression of the vast majority of the working people a handful of capitalists. In contrast to this, proletarian or Soviet democracy turned the mass organizations of precisely the classes oppressed by capitalism, the proletarians and the poorest peasants - the semi-proletarians, that is, the vast majority of the population, into the permanent and sole basis of the entire state apparatus, local and central, from bottom to top. Thus, the Soviet state implemented, by the way, in an incomparably broader form than anywhere else, local and regional self-government, without any authorities appointed from above. The task of the party is to work tirelessly to fully implement this highest type of democracy, which requires, for its proper functioning, a constant increase in the level of culture, organization and initiative of the masses.

2. In contrast to bourgeois democracy, which hid the class character of its state, Soviet power openly recognizes the inevitability of the class character of any state, until the division of society into classes and with it all state power has completely disappeared. The Soviet state, by its very essence, is aimed at suppressing the resistance of the exploiters, and the Soviet Constitution, based on the fact that any freedom is a deception if it contradicts the liberation of labor from the oppression of capital, does not stop at taking away the political rights of the exploiters. The task of the party of the proletariat is to, while steadily suppressing the resistance of the exploiters and ideologically combating deeply rooted prejudices about the unconditional nature of bourgeois rights and freedoms, explain at the same time that the deprivation of political rights and any restrictions on freedom are necessary exclusively as a temporary measures to combat attempts by exploiters to defend or restore their privileges. As the objective possibility of exploitation of man by man disappears, the need for these temporary measures will disappear, and the party will strive to narrow them and to completely abolish them.

3. Bourgeois democracy was limited to the formal extension of political rights and freedoms, such as the rights of assembly, unions, and the press, equally to all citizens. But in reality, both administrative practice and mainly the economic slavery of the working people have always made it impossible for the latter under bourgeois democracy to make any widespread use of these rights and freedoms.

On the contrary, proletarian democracy replaces the formal proclamation of rights and freedoms with their actual provision, first of all and most of all, of those classes of the population that have been oppressed by capitalism, that is, the proletariat and the peasantry. To achieve this, the Soviet government expropriates premises, printing houses, paper warehouses, etc. from the bourgeoisie, placing them at the complete disposal of the working people and their organizations.

The task of the RCP is to involve ever larger masses of the working population in the enjoyment of democratic rights and freedoms and to expand the material possibilities for this.

4. For centuries, bourgeois democracy proclaimed the equality of people regardless of gender, religion, race and nationality, but capitalism did not allow this equality to be realized in practice anywhere, and in its imperialist stage led to a strong aggravation of racial and national oppression. Only because Soviet power is the power of the working people, it was able to completely and in all areas of life, for the first time in the world, to achieve this equality, up to the complete destruction of the last traces of inequality for women in the field of marriage and family law in general. The task of the party at the moment is primarily ideological and educational work to completely destroy all traces of previous inequality or prejudice, especially among the backward layers of the proletariat and peasantry.

Not limiting itself to the formal equality of women, the party strives to free them from the material burdens of an outdated household by replacing it with communal houses, public canteens, central laundries, nurseries, etc.

5. Providing for the working masses an incomparably greater opportunity than under bourgeois democracy and parliamentarism to elect and recall deputies in the easiest and most accessible way for workers and peasants, Soviet power at the same time destroys the negative aspects of parliamentarism, especially the separation of legislative and executive powers, isolation of representative institutions from the masses, etc.

The Soviet state also brings the state apparatus closer to the masses by the fact that the electoral unit and the main cell of the state becomes not the territorial district, but the production unit (plant, factory).

The task of the party is to, while carrying out all the work in this direction, to achieve further rapprochement between the authorities and the masses of working people on the basis of more and more strict and more and more complete implementation of democracy by these masses in practice, especially through the implementation of responsibility and accountability
officials.

6. While bourgeois democracy, contrary to its declarations, turned the army into an instrument of the propertied classes, separating it from the working masses and opposing it to them, destroying or making it difficult for soldiers to exercise political rights, the Soviet state merges in its bodies, in the Soviets workers and soldiers on the basis of complete equality of their rights and unity of their interests. The task of the Party is to defend and develop this unity of workers and soldiers in the Soviets, strengthening the inextricable connection of the armed force with the organizations of the proletariat and semi-proletariat.

7. The leading role of the urban industrial proletariat throughout the revolution, as the most concentrated, united, enlightened and struggle-hardened part of the working masses, was manifested both in the very emergence of the Soviets and in the entire course of their development into bodies of power. Our Soviet Constitution reflected this, preserving some advantage for the industrial proletariat compared to the more dispersed petty-bourgeois masses in the countryside.

The RCP, explaining the temporary nature of these advantages, historically associated with the difficulties of the socialist organization of the countryside, must strive for the steady and systematic use of this position of the industrial proletariat in order to, in contrast to the narrow guild and narrow professional interests that capitalism cultivated among the workers, unite more closely with the advanced workers the most backward and dispersed masses of rural proletarians and semi-proletarians, as well as the middle peasantry.

8. Only thanks to the Soviet organization of the state, the revolution of the proletariat could immediately smash and destroy to the ground the old, bourgeois, bureaucratic and judicial state apparatus. However, the insufficiently high cultural level of the broad masses, the lack of necessary management skills among workers promoted by the masses to responsible positions, the need to quickly attract old-school specialists in difficult conditions and the diversion of the most developed layer of urban workers to military work led to a partial revival of bureaucracy within the Soviet system.

Waging the most decisive fight against bureaucracy, the RCP advocates the following measures to completely overcome this evil:

1. Mandatory involvement of each member of the Council in performing certain work in governing the state.
2. Consistent change of these works so that they gradually cover all branches of management.
3. The gradual involvement of the entire working population in the work of running the state.

The full and comprehensive implementation of all these measures, representing a further step along the path taken by the Paris Commune, and the simplification of management functions while raising the cultural level of the working people, lead to the destruction of state power.

In the field of national relations

9. On the national issue, the RCP is guided by the following provisions:

1) The policy of bringing together proletarians and semi-proletarians of different nationalities for a joint revolutionary struggle to overthrow the landowners and bourgeoisie is put at the forefront.

2) In order to overcome the distrust on the part of the working masses of oppressed countries towards the proletariat of the states that oppressed these countries, it is necessary to destroy all and any privileges of any national group, complete equality of nations, recognition of the right to state secession for colonies and unequal nations.

3) For the same purposes, as one of the transitional forms on the path to complete unity, the party puts forward a federal union of states organized according to the Soviet type.

4) In the question of who is the bearer of the nation’s will to secede, the RCP takes a historical-class point of view, taking into account what stage of its historical development a given nation stands at: on the path from the Middle Ages to bourgeois democracy or from bourgeois democracy to Soviet or proletarian democracy, etc.

In any case, on the part of the proletariat of those nations that were oppressive nations, special caution and special attention to the remnants of national feelings among the working masses of oppressed or disadvantaged nations is necessary. Only with such a policy is it possible to create conditions for a truly strong, voluntary unity of nationally diverse elements of the international proletariat, as the experience of uniting a number of national Soviet republics around Soviet Russia has shown.

In the field of military

10. In the field of military tasks, parties are determined by the following basic provisions:

1) In the era of the disintegration of imperialism and the growing civil war, it is impossible either to preserve the old army or to build a new one on a so-called non-class or national basis. The Red Army, as an instrument of the proletarian dictatorship, must of necessity have an openly class character, i.e. to be formed exclusively from the proletariat and the semi-proletarian strata of the peasantry close to it. Only in connection with the destruction of classes will such a class army turn into a nationwide socialist militia.

2) The widest possible training of all proletarians and semi-proletarians in military affairs and the introduction of the teaching of relevant subjects in school are necessary.

3) The work of military training and education of the Red Army is carried out on the basis of class unity and socialist enlightenment. Therefore, it is necessary to have political commissars consisting of reliable and selfless communists, along with military commanders, and to create communist cells in each part to establish internal ideological connections and conscious discipline.

4) In contrast to the structure of the old army, the following are necessary: ​​a possibly short period of purely barracks training, bringing the barracks closer to the type of military and military-political schools, possibly a close connection of military formations with factories, factories, trade unions, organizations of the rural poor.

5) The necessary organizational connection and stability can be imparted to the young revolutionary army only with the help of the command staff, at least at first the lowest, from among the class-conscious workers and peasants. Preparing the most capable and energetic soldiers dedicated to the cause of socialism for command positions is therefore one of the most important tasks in creating an army.

6) The widest use and application of the operational and technical experience of the last world war is necessary. In this regard, it is necessary to widely involve military specialists who have gone through the school of the old army in organizing the army and its operational leadership. In turn, a necessary condition for such involvement is the concentration of political leadership of the army and comprehensive control over the command staff in the hands of the working class.

7) The requirement for the election of command personnel, which was of great fundamental importance in relation to the bourgeois army, where the command staff was selected and trained as an apparatus for the class subordination of soldiers and, through the soldiers, the working masses, loses completely its fundamental importance in relation to the class workers and peasants Red Army. The possible combination of election and appointment is dictated to the revolutionary class army solely by practical considerations and depends on the achieved level of formation, the degree of cohesion of army units, the availability of command personnel, and the like.

In the field of judicial

11. Having taken all power into its own hands and completely abolished the organs of bourgeois rule, the courts of the previous structure, proletarian democracy, instead of the formula of bourgeois democracy - the election of judges by the people - put forward a class slogan - the election of judges from among the working people only by the working people and carried it through the entire organization of the court, equalizing, at the same time, both sexes have all rights both in the selection of judges and in the performance of the duties of judges.

In order to attract the broadest masses of the proletariat and the poorest peasantry to the administration of justice, the participation in the court of constantly changing temporary assessor judges was introduced, with the involvement in the compilation of lists of mass workers' organizations, trade unions, etc.

By creating a single people's court to replace the endless series of previous courts of various structures, with multiple instances, the Soviet government simplified the structure of the court, making it absolutely accessible to the population and eliminating any red tape in the conduct of cases.

Having repealed the laws of the overthrown governments, the Soviet government instructed judges elected by the Soviets to implement the will of the proletariat, applying its decrees, and in the absence of such or their incompleteness, to be guided by socialist legal consciousness.

In the field of punishment, courts organized in this way have already led to a radical change in the nature of punishment, implementing conditional sentences on a large scale, introducing public censure as a measure of punishment, replacing imprisonment with compulsory labor while preserving freedom, replacing prisons with educational institutions and making it possible to apply the practice of comrades' courts.

The RCP, defending the further development of the court along the same path, must strive to ensure that the entire working population is involved in the exercise of judicial duties and that the system of punishments is finally replaced by a system of educational measures.

In the field of public education

12. In the field of public education, the RCP sets as its task to complete the work begun with the October Revolution of 1917, transforming the school from an instrument of class rule of the bourgeoisie into an instrument for the complete destruction of the division of society into classes, into an instrument for the communist degeneration of society.

During the period of the dictatorship of the proletariat, that is, during the period of preparation of conditions that make the full implementation of communism possible, the school must be not only a conductor of the principles of communism in general, but also a conductor of the ideological, organizational, educational influence of the proletariat on the semi-proletarian and non-proletarian layers of the working masses for the purpose of education generation capable of finally establishing communism.

The immediate task on this path is currently the further development of the following foundations of school and educational affairs already established by the Soviet government:

1) Conducting free and compulsory general and polytechnic (introducing in theory and practice all the main branches of production) education for all children of both sexes up to 17 years of age.

2) Creation of a network of preschool institutions: nurseries, kindergartens, hearths, etc., in order to improve public education and emancipation of women.

3) Full implementation of the principles of a unified labor school, with teaching in the native language, with joint education of children of both sexes, unconditionally secular, i.e., free from any religious influence, closely connecting education with socially productive labor, preparing fully developed members of communist society.

4) Supplying all students with food, clothing, shoes and educational materials at the expense of the state.

5) Training of new cadres of educators imbued with the ideas of communism.

6) Involving the working population in active participation in the cause of education (development of “public education councils”, mobilization of the literate, etc.).

7) Comprehensive state assistance for self-education and self-development of workers and peasants (creation of a network of out-of-school educational institutions: libraries, schools for adults, people's houses and universities, courses, lectures, cinemas, studios, etc.).

8) Broad development of vocational education for persons from 17 years of age in connection with general polytechnic knowledge.

9) Opening wide access to higher school classrooms for everyone who wants to study, and primarily for workers; attracting everyone who can teach there to teaching activities in higher education; the elimination of any and all artificial barriers between fresh scientific forces and the department; material support for students in order to give the actual opportunity to proletarians and peasants to take advantage of higher education.

10) It is equally necessary to open and make available to the working people all the treasures of art created on the basis of the exploitation of their labor and which until now were at the exclusive disposal of the exploiters.

11) Development of the widest propaganda of communist ideas and the use of the apparatus and means of state power for this purpose.

In the field of religious relations

13. In relation to religion, the Russian Communist Party is not satisfied with the already decreed separation of church from state and school from church, i.e. measures that bourgeois democracy puts forward in its programs, but nowhere in the world has it been completed, thanks to the diverse actual connections of capital with religious propaganda.

The RCP is guided by the conviction that only the implementation of planning and consciousness in all social and economic activities of the masses will entail the complete withering away of religious prejudices. The Party strives to completely destroy the connection between the exploiting classes and the organization of religious propaganda, promoting the actual liberation of the working masses from religious prejudices and organizing the broadest scientific, educational and anti-religious propaganda. At the same time, it is necessary to carefully avoid any insult to the feelings of believers, which will only lead to the consolidation of religious fanaticism.

In the field of economic

1. Steadily continue and complete the expropriation of the bourgeoisie that has begun and, in the main and basically, has already been completed, the transformation of the means of production and circulation into the property of the Soviet Republic, that is, into the common property of all working people.

2. As the main and fundamental thing, which determines the entire economic policy of the Soviet government, to set the all-round increase in the country's productive forces.

In view of the severe devastation the country is experiencing, the practical goal - to immediately and at all costs increase the amount of products most necessary for the population - everything else must be subordinated. The success of each Soviet institution connected with the national economy should be measured by practical results in this regard.

In this case, you must first pay attention to the following:

3. The disintegration of the imperialist economy left as a legacy to the first period of Soviet construction a certain chaotic nature in the organization of production and its management. The more urgently it is put forward - as one of the fundamental tasks - the maximum unification of all economic activities of the country according to one national plan; the greatest centralization of production in the sense of unifying it into individual industries and groups of industries and concentrating it in the best production units and in the sense of speed of fulfillment of economic tasks; the greatest coherence of the entire production apparatus, rational and economical use of all material resources of the country.

At the same time, it is necessary to take care of expanding economic cooperation and political ties with other peoples, while simultaneously striving to establish a unified economic plan with those of them that have already transferred to the Soviet system.

4. In relation to small and handicraft industry, it is necessary to widely use it by giving state orders to handicraftsmen; the inclusion of handicraft and small-scale industry in the general plan for the supply of raw materials and fuel, as well as its financial support, subject to the unification of individual handicraftsmen, handicraft artels, productive cooperatives and small enterprises into larger production and industrial units; encouraging such associations by providing them with economic advantages, aimed, along with other measures, at paralyzing the desire of artisans to turn into small industrialists and create a painless transition of these backward forms of production to a higher, large-scale mechanized industry.

5. The organizational apparatus of socialized industry must rely primarily on trade unions. They must increasingly free themselves from the narrowness of the workshop and turn into large production associations, covering the majority, and gradually all, of the workers in a given branch of production.

Already, according to the laws of the Soviet Republic and established practice, participants in all local and central bodies of industrial management, trade unions must come to the physical concentration in their hands of all management of the entire national economy, as a single economic whole. Thus ensuring an inextricable connection between the central state administration, the national economy and the broad masses of workers, trade unions must involve the latter to the widest extent in the direct work of running the economy. The participation of trade unions in running the economy and their involvement of the broad masses in this is, at the same time, the main means of combating the bureaucratization of the economic apparatus of Soviet power and makes it possible to establish truly popular control over the results of production.

6. Necessary for the purpose of systematic development of the national economy, the maximum use of all available labor force in the state, its correct distribution and redistribution both between different territorial regions and between various sectors of the national economy, should constitute the immediate task of the economic policy of Soviet power, which can be implemented it only in close unity with trade unions.

The wholesale mobilization of the entire working population by the Soviet government, with the participation of trade unions, to carry out certain public works, must be applied incomparably more widely and systematically than has been done so far.

7. In the context of the collapse of the capitalist organization of labor, the productive forces of the country can be restored and developed, and the socialist mode of production can be strengthened only on the basis of the comradely discipline of the working people, their maximum initiative, consciousness of responsibility and the strictest mutual control over the productivity of labor.

Achieving this goal requires persistent, systematic work on the re-education of the masses, which is now facilitated precisely because the masses see in fact the elimination of the capitalist, landowner and merchant and, from their own practical experience, come to the conviction that the level of their well-being depends exclusively on their discipline own labor.

In this work of creating a new socialist discipline, the most important role falls to the lot of the trade unions. The latter, breaking with the old pattern, must, to achieve this goal, apply and test in practice various measures, such as: establishing reporting, production standards, introducing responsibility to special comradely workers' courts, etc.

8. The same task of developing the productive forces requires the immediate, widespread and comprehensive use of the science and technology specialists left to us as a legacy of capitalism, despite the fact that in most cases they are inevitably imbued with bourgeois worldviews and skills. The Party believes that the period of sharp struggle against this layer, caused by the sabotage organized by them, has ended, since this sabotage has generally been broken. The party must, in close alliance with trade unions, pursue its previous line: on the one hand, not give the slightest political concession to this bourgeois layer and mercilessly suppress any of its counter-revolutionary attempts, and on the other hand, just as mercilessly fight against the pseudo-radical, in fact in fact, an ignorant conceit that working people are able to overcome capitalism and the bourgeois system without learning from bourgeois specialists, without using them, without doing a long school of work alongside them.

Striving for equality of remuneration for all work and for complete communism, the Soviet government cannot set itself the task of immediately implementing this equality at this moment, when only the first steps are being taken towards the transition from capitalism to communism. Therefore, it is still necessary to maintain higher remuneration for specialists for a certain time, so that they can work no worse, but better, than before, and for the same purpose, one cannot abandon the system of bonuses for the most successful and especially organizational work.

It is equally necessary to place bourgeois specialists in an environment of comradely common labor, hand in hand with the mass of ordinary workers, led by conscious communists, and thereby promote mutual understanding and rapprochement between manual and mental workers separated by capitalism.

9. The Soviet government has already taken a number of measures aimed at the development of science and its rapprochement with production: the creation of a whole network of new scientific and production institutes, laboratories, testing stations, pilot plants for testing new technical methods, improvements and inventions, accounting and organization of all scientific forces and means, etc. The RCP, supporting all these measures, strives for their further development and the creation of the most favorable conditions for scientific work in connection with raising the country’s productive forces.

In the field of agriculture

10. The Soviet government, having carried out the complete abolition of private ownership of land, has already moved on to implementing a whole series of measures aimed at organizing large-scale socialist agriculture. The most important of these measures are:

1) the organization of Soviet farms, i.e. large socialist economies;

2) support for societies, as well as partnerships for public cultivation of land;

3) organization of state sowing of all unsown lands of anyone:

4) state mobilization of all agronomic forces for vigorous measures to improve agricultural production;

5) support for agricultural communes, as completely voluntary unions of farmers for conducting large-scale common farming.

Considering all these measures as the only way to the absolutely necessary increase in the productivity of agricultural labor, the RCP strives for the fullest possible implementation of these measures, for their extension to the more backward regions of the country and for further steps in the same direction.

In particular, the RKP advocates:

1. full state support for agricultural cooperation involved in the processing of agricultural products;
2. a widely carried out reclamation system;
3. wide and systematic supply of equipment to the poor and middle peasantry through rental points.

Considering that small peasant farming will exist for a long time, the RCP is striving to implement a number of measures aimed at increasing the productivity of peasant farming. Such measures are:

1. streamlining peasant land use (elimination of striped land, long land, etc.);
2. supplying peasants with improved seeds and artificial fertilizers;
3. improvement of the breed of peasant livestock;
4. dissemination of agronomic knowledge;
5. agronomic assistance to peasants;
6. repair in Soviet repair shops of agricultural peasant equipment;
7. arrangement of rental points, experimental stations, display fields, etc.;
8. reclamation of peasant lands.

11. In view of the fact that the opposition between city and countryside is one of the deepest foundations of the economic and cultural backwardness of the village, and in an era of such a deep crisis as the current one, it places both city and village in front of the immediate danger of degeneration and death, the RCP sees in the destruction of this opposition is one of the fundamental tasks of communist construction and, along with general measures, considers it necessary to broadly and systematically attract industrial workers to communist construction in agriculture, develop the activities of the national “Workers Assistance Committee” established by the Soviet government for these purposes, and the like.

12. In all its work in the countryside, the RCP continues to rely on its proletarian and semi-proletarian strata, organizing them first of all into an independent force, creating party cells in the countryside, organizations of the poor, special types of trade unions of proletarians and semi-proletarians of the countryside, etc. , bringing them closer in every possible way to the urban proletariat and snatching them out from under the influence of the rural bourgeoisie and petty property interests.

In relation to the kulaks, to the rural bourgeoisie, the policy of the RCP consists of a decisive struggle against their exploitative inclinations, to suppress their resistance to Soviet policy.

In relation to the middle peasantry, the policy of the Russian Communist Party is to gradually and systematically involve them in the work of socialist construction. The Party sets itself the task of separating it from the kulaks, winning it to the side of the working class by attentive attention to its needs, combating its backwardness with measures of ideological influence, not at all with measures of suppression, striving in all cases where its vital interests are affected, to reach practical agreements with it , making concessions to him in determining the methods of carrying out socialist transformations.

In the distribution area

13. In the field of distribution, the task of the Soviet government at the present time is to steadily continue to replace trade with a planned, organized on a national scale distribution of products. The goal is to organize the entire population into a single network of consumer communes capable of distributing all necessary products with the greatest speed, systematicity, economy and with the least amount of labor, strictly centralizing the entire distribution apparatus. The basis of consumer communes and their associations should be the existing civil and workers' cooperation, which is the largest organization of consumers and the apparatus of mass distribution most prepared by the history of capitalism.

Considering in principle the only correct type of further communist development of the cooperative apparatus, and not its discarding, the RCP must systematically continue its policy: oblige all party members to work in cooperatives, guide them, with the help of trade unions, in the communist spirit, develop the initiative and discipline of the working people of the population united in cooperatives, to ensure that the entire population is covered by cooperatives and that these cooperatives merge into a single cooperative covering the entire Soviet Republic from top to bottom; finally, and most importantly, that the predominant influence of the proletariat on the remaining layers of the working people is constantly ensured and that in practice, various measures facilitating and effecting the transition from petty-bourgeois cooperatives of the old, capitalist type to consumer communes led by proletarians and semi-proletarians.

In the field of money and banking

14. Avoiding the mistake of the Paris Commune. The Soviet government in Russia immediately seized the state bank, then moved on to the nationalization of private commercial banks, began to unite nationalized banks, savings banks and treasuries with the state bank, thus creating the skeleton of a single people's bank of the Soviet Republic and transforming the bank from the center of economic dominance of finance capital and instruments of political domination of the exploiters into an instrument of workers' power and a lever of economic revolution.

Setting as its goal the further consistent completion of the work begun by the Soviet government, the RCP brings to the fore the following principles:

1. monopolization of all banking in the hands of the Soviet state;
2. radical change and simplification of banking operations by transforming the banking apparatus into a uniform accounting and general accounting apparatus of the Soviet Republic. As a systematic social economy is organized, this will lead to the destruction of the bank and its transformation into the central accounting department of a communist society.

15. During the first period of transition from capitalism to communism, while communist production and distribution of products have not yet been fully organized, the destruction of money seems impossible. In this situation, the bourgeois elements of the population continue to use the banknotes remaining in private ownership for the purposes of speculation, profit and robbery of the working people. Based on the nationalization of banks, the RCP strives to implement a number of measures that expand the scope of non-monetary payments and prepare for the destruction of money: mandatory holding of money in the people's bank; introduction of budget books, replacement of money with checks, short-term tickets for the right to receive food, etc.

In the field of finance

Under these conditions, balancing income and expenses is feasible only with the correct organization of state planned production and distribution of products. As for covering direct government expenses in the transition era, the RCP will defend the transition from the system of indemnities from capitalists, which was historically necessary and legal in the early days of the socialist revolution, to a progressive income and property tax. And since this tax outlives itself due to the widespread expropriation of the propertied classes, the covering of state expenses must rest on the direct circulation of part of the income from various state monopolies into state income.

In the field of housing

17. Striving to resolve the housing issue, especially aggravated during the war. The Soviet government expropriated completely all the houses of capitalist homeowners and transferred them to city councils; carried out a massive resettlement of workers from the outskirts into bourgeois houses; transferred the best of them to workers' organizations, accepting the maintenance of these buildings at the expense of the state; began providing working families with furniture, etc.

The task of the Russian Communist Party is to, following the above path and in no way hurting the interests of non-capitalist homeownership, strive with all our might to improve the living conditions of the working masses; to the elimination of overcrowding and unsanitary conditions of the old quarters, to the destruction of unsuitable housing, to the reconstruction of old ones, the construction of new ones, corresponding to the new living conditions of the working masses, to the rational resettlement of the working people.

In the field of labor protection and social security

With the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, for the first time, the opportunity was created to fully implement the minimum program of the socialist parties in the field of labor protection.

The Soviet government passed legislation and enshrined in the “Code of Labor Laws”: an 8-hour working day for all workers, as the maximum working time, and for persons under 18 years of age in particularly hazardous industries, as well as for for miners working underground, the working day should not exceed 6 hours; 42 hours weekly uninterrupted rest for all workers; prohibition of overtime work as a general rule; prohibition of employing children and adolescents under 16 years of age; prohibition of night work and work in particularly hazardous industries, as well as overtime work for all females and males under 18 years of age; exemption of women from work for 8 weeks before and 8 weeks after childbirth, maintaining full earnings for all this time, with free medical and medicinal care and providing workers with at least half an hour every three hours to feed the child and issuing additional benefits to nursing mothers; labor inspection and sanitary inspection, elected by the councils of trade unions.

The Soviet government legislated for complete social security for all workers who do not exploit the labor of others, against all types of disability and, for the first time in the world, against unemployment, at the expense of employers and the state, with full self-government provided and with the broad participation of trade unions.

Moreover. The Soviet government in some respects went further than the minimum program and established in the same “Code of Labor Laws” the participation of workers’ organizations in resolving issues of hiring and firing; monthly leave with pay for all workers who have worked continuously for at least one year; state regulation of wages based on tariffs developed by trade unions; certain bodies, namely the labor distribution and accounting departments under the Councils and trade unions, are obliged to provide work to the unemployed.

But the extreme devastation caused by the war and the onslaught of world imperialism forced the Soviet government to make the following retreats: to allow the use of overtime work in exceptional cases, limiting it to 50 days a year; allow the work of teenagers from 14 to 16 years old, limiting their working day to 4 hours; temporarily provide a two-week vacation instead of a 1-month vacation; increase the duration of night work to 7 hours.

The RCP must conduct widespread propaganda for the active participation of the workers themselves in the vigorous implementation of all activities in the field of labor protection, for which it is necessary:

1) strengthen the work on organizing and expanding labor inspection by selecting and training for this purpose active workers from among the workers themselves and by extending it to small and domestic industry;

2) extend labor protection to all types of labor (construction workers, land and water transport, servants and agricultural workers);

3) permanently remove minors from work and further reduce the working day for teenagers.

In addition, the RCP should set itself the task of establishing:

1) in the future, with a general increase in productivity, a maximum 6-hour working day without reducing remuneration for work and with the obligation of workers in addition to devote two hours, without special remuneration, to the theory of craft and production, practical training in the techniques of public administration and the art of war;

2) introduction of an incentive remuneration system for increasing labor productivity;

In the field of public health

The basis of its activities in the field of public health protection is the implementation of broad health and sanitary measures aimed at preventing the development of diseases. The dictatorship of the proletariat has already made it possible to implement a whole series of health and medical measures that are not feasible within the framework of bourgeois society: the nationalization of the pharmacy business, large private medical institutions, resorts, labor conscription of the medical workforce, etc.

In accordance with this, the RCP sets its immediate tasks:

1) decisive implementation of extensive sanitary measures in the interests of workers, such as:
a) improvement of populated areas (protection of soil, water and air);

b) provision of public catering on a scientific and hygienic basis;

c) organization of measures to prevent the development and spread of infectious diseases;

d) creation of sanitary legislation;

2) the fight against social diseases (tuberculosis, venereism, alcoholism, etc.);

3) provision of publicly accessible, free and qualified medical and medicinal care.

The text of the program is given according to the edition

VIII Congress of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks).
Moscow, March 18-23, 1919.
Verbatim report.

Ed. "Communist", Moscow, 1919.

Eighth Congress of the RCP (b), took place from March 18 to March 23, 1919 in Moscow. There were 301 delegates with a casting vote and 102 with an advisory vote, representing 313,766 party members.

By the beginning of 1919, a network of party organizations had been created, built taking into account the Soviet administrative-territorial division of the country (provincial, city, district, and volost committees); only about 8 thousand (see History of the Civil War in the USSR, vol. 3, 1957, pp. 312‒13). Delegates were represented from 40 provincial party organizations, uniting 220,495 party members, from party organizations of the Red Army - 29,706, from national party organizations of Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Poland - 63,565 [see. Eighth Congress of the RCP (b). Protocols, 1959, p. 274]. The composition of the delegates of the congress (98 people did not fill out the questionnaires): by age - up to 30 years - 128, from 30 to 40 - 140, over 40 - 37 people, average age - 31 years, maximum - 61, minimum - 16 years; by profession - party workers - 27, workers - 108, office workers, doctors, etc. - 97; by education - with higher education, including incomplete - 73 people, with secondary education - 76; by party experience - up to 1905 - 85 people, from 1905 to 1917 - 149, 1917-18 - 77. Order of the day: Report of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) (speaker V.I. Lenin); Program of the RCP (b) (speakers V. I. Lenin and N. I. Bukharin); Creation of the Comintern (speaker G. E. Zinoviev); Martial law and military policy (speaker G. Ya. Sokolnikov); Work in the countryside (speaker V.I. Lenin, speaker in the agrarian section V.V. Kuraev); Organizational issues (speaker G. E. Zinoviev); Elections of the Central Committee.

The work of the congress was led by V.I. Lenin. He dedicated the first word to the memory of Ya.M. Sverdlova . In the report of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), Lenin highlighted issues of foreign and domestic policy and the organizational work of the party; emphasized the need to further strengthen the Soviet state, the Red Army, the alliance of the working class with the peasantry, the importance of developing and adopting a new party program, since the 1903 program was implemented. Having discussed the report of the Central Committee, the congress unanimously approved its activities. The draft Program of the RCP (b) consisted of two main sections: a general (theoretical) and a section in which the tasks of the transition period from capitalism to socialism were formulated. The first contained an assessment of the October Revolution and its international significance, characterized the simple commodity economy, capitalism, imperialism, their contradictions, inevitably leading to the proletarian revolution, put forward the task of uniting the revolutionary actions of the proletarians of all countries, and emphasized the need to fight opportunism. In the second - the tasks of the party during the transition period in the field of political, military, judicial, economic, national relations, public education, religious relations, agriculture, distribution, money and banking, finance, housing, labor protection, social security and public health . The Lenin project was adopted by the program commission elected at the 7th Party Congress, but due to disagreements in the commission, two speakers spoke at the 8th Congress: Lenin from the majority and Bukharin from the minority. Bukharin proposed to exclude from the program the characteristics of simple commodity economy and industrial capitalism, retaining only the analysis of imperialism. He viewed imperialism as a special socio-economic formation and defended the anti-Marxist thesis of so-called “pure imperialism”. In his final speech on the issue of the program, Lenin proved the complete theoretical inconsistency and political harmfulness of Bukharin’s views. Lenin pointed out that “pure imperialism” did not exist and never will exist (see Poln. sobr. soch., 5th ed., vol. 33, p. 151). Imperialism is a superstructure over the old, pre-monopoly capitalism. Bukharin’s demand to exclude from the program the characteristics of small commodity farming (peasant farming) led to the denial of the role of the average peasant as an ally of the working class in socialist construction and to a diversion of attention from the fight against the kulaks. N.I. Bukharin and G.L. Pyatakov opposed the clause on the right of nations to self-determination up to state secession, arguing that the nation is not only the proletariat, but also the bourgeoisie. Bukharin put forward the slogan: “The workers’ right to self-determination.” The Congress unanimously supported Lenin's position that every nation should receive the right to self-determination, and this will contribute to the self-determination of the working people. Lenin's program for resolving the national question had international significance. Refusal of the slogan about the right of colonies and unequal nations to self-determination, even to the point of state secession, would be to the advantage of the imperialists.

The congress accepted Lenin's draft program as a basis and transferred it to the congress commission for final editing. The program, unanimously adopted by the 8th Congress, was the guiding document of the Communist Party until Twenty-second Congress of the CPSU(1961), who adopted a new program.

The report on the military issue substantiated the need to put an end to volunteer methods in the construction of the Red Army, partisanship in the troops and to create a regular Workers' and Peasants' Red Army with iron discipline; the need to use old military specialists under the strict control of the Communist Party through the system of military commissars was confirmed; it was proposed to strengthen the training of commanders from workers and peasants, strengthen party political bodies and increase communist influence in the Red Army. The line of the Central Committee of the RCP (b) was opposed by the so-called "military opposition". Many delegates criticized L. D. Trotsky, who headed the military department, for neglecting the party leadership in the army, for his lordly behavior and dictatorial habits. The congress transferred the discussion of the military issue to the military section. Then the military issue was considered at a closed meeting of the congress. Lenin spoke in defense of the theses of the Central Committee at this meeting. He condemned the “military opposition”, which rejected centralized control in the Red Army and defended partisanship, paid great attention to strengthening discipline, and emphasized the important role of commissars and the party-political apparatus in the training and education of Soviet soldiers. The decisions of the 8th Congress on the military issue were of great importance for the construction and strengthening of the Red Army.

In his report “On Work in the Countryside,” Lenin substantiated the need to reconsider the attitude towards the middle peasant. In the first months of the socialist revolution, the middle peasantry hesitated, and therefore the party pursued a policy of neutralizing the middle peasants. After the revolution, the party's policy in the countryside contributed to the middleization of the peasantry; the middle peasant became the central figure in the village. The fears of the middle peasants that in the event of the victory of the White Guard, landownership would be restored, the military successes of the Red Army caused a turn of the middle peasantry towards Soviet power. Lenin, in the resolution “On the attitude towards the middle peasantry” adopted by the congress, defined a new party line on the peasant question: to be able to reach an agreement with the middle peasant, without for a moment giving up the fight against the kulaks and firmly relying on the poor peasants. A resolution “On political propaganda and cultural and educational work in the village” was also adopted. The decisions of the congress on the peasant question were of great importance for strengthening union of the working class and peasantry.

When discussing the organizational issue (about party and Soviet construction, about the leading role of the party in the Soviets), the opportunist group of T.V. Sapronov - N. Osinsky (V.V. Obolensky), M.I. Minkov spoke out against the party’s policy. She denied the leading role of the party in the Soviets, spoke out for the merger of the Council of People's Commissars with the Presidium of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee, and for the decentralized construction of bodies of Soviet power. The Congress gave a decisive rebuff to the opportunists. The resolution on party building emphasized the need for further growth of the party at the expense of the proletariat of the city and countryside, improving the social composition of the party, and strengthening the party’s ties with the masses. In the field of Soviet construction, it was proposed to strictly observe and implement Soviet democracy. The Congress pointed out the need to strengthen the leading role of the Communist Party in the work of the Soviets.

The Congress welcomed the creation of the 3rd, Communist International and joined its platform. On behalf of the congress delegates, Lenin spoke on the radio with greetings to the Hungarian Soviet Republic.

The congress established the structure of the Central Committee of the RCP (b): the Central Committee organizes the Politburo, the Organizing Bureau, and the Secretariat. A decision was made on the position of the party organizations of the republics. At the congress, a Central Committee consisting of 19 members and 8 candidate members of the Central Committee and an audit commission of 3 people were elected.

The documents adopted by the congress determined the party's policy on the most important issues - peasant, national, military. For the first time, the basic organizational principles of the Marxist party that came to power and governed the state were formulated. The party and the people received a specific program of struggle for building a socialist society (see. Program of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union). Foreign young communist parties received a clear example of Lenin's analysis of the conditions of struggle, a sample of generalization of the first experience of the ruling Marxist party. Marxist science was enriched with conclusions arising from the practice of socialist construction; the 8th Congress was an outstanding event not only in the life of the party, the Soviet country, but also the entire international revolutionary movement.

Lit.: Lenin V.I., VIII Congress of the RCP (b). March 18‒23, 1919, Full. collection cit., 5th ed., vol. 38, p. 125‒215; Eighth Congress of the RCP (b). Protocols, M., 1959; History of the CPSU, vol. 3, book. 2, M., 1968, ch. 13; Leninsky collection, vol. 37, M., 1970.

• - workers, peasants, Red Army and Cossack deputies - took place in Moscow on December 22-29. 1920 during the country's transition from war to peaceful construction. There were 2,537 delegates present, of which 1,728 had a casting vote and 809...
• - see Extraordinary Eighth Congress of Soviets...

  Soviet historical encyclopedia

• - took place in Moscow on November 25. - 5 Dec. 1936. There were 2016 delegates with voting rights, of which: workers 42%, peasants - 40%, employees - 18%; communists - 72%, non-party members - 28%. The delegates represented 63 nationalities...

  Soviet historical encyclopedia

• - workers, peasants, Red Army and Cossack deputies, took place in Moscow on December 22-29, 1920...
• - took place from March 18 to March 23, 1919 in Moscow. There were 301 delegates with a casting vote and 102 with an advisory vote, representing 313,766 party members...

  Great Soviet Encyclopedia

• - The Eighth Congress of the Russian Communist Party took place from March 18 to March 23, 1919 in Moscow. There were 301 delegates with a casting vote and 102 with an advisory vote, representing 313,766 party members...

  Great Soviet Encyclopedia

• - took place in Moscow on November 25 -December 5, 1936...

  Great Soviet Encyclopedia

• - took place in Moscow on November 25 - December 5, 1936. 2016 delegates with voting rights were present. Social composition of the delegates: workers - 42%, peasants - 40%, office workers - 18%...

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• - Obsesslav. Indo-European character, German acht, etc.). It is the full form of osmъ "eight", which is believed to go back to the form of dualities. h. noun octā "harrow" of "four" ...

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• - EIGHTH, oh, oh. 1. see eight. 2. eighth, -oh. Obtained by dividing by eight. Eighth part. One eighth...

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• - EIGHTH, eighth, eighth. 1. number order. by eight. Eight times. 2. in meaning noun eighth, eighth, female An eighth of something, an eighth. The book is one-eighth page format. 3...

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• - eighth I m. The one who follows the seventh in any set. II adj. 1. order. from no. eight; next to the seventh when counting, numbering homogeneous objects, phenomena. 2...

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• - eighth ancient Russian, old glory. eighth ὄγδοος, Serbo-Croatian. osmi, Slovenian. ǫ́smi, Czech. osmý, slvts. ôsmy, Polish Osmy. Originally related lit. ãšmas, Old Prussian. asmas, other Indian aṣṭamás, Avest. astǝma-...

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Against the schism of Melitius the Egyptian, the forty-eighth and sixty-eighth heresies

From the book of Creation author Epiphanius of Cyprus

Against the schism of Melitius the Egyptian, the forty-eighth and sixty-eighth heresies 1. The sect of Melitians (?????????? ?? ?????) exists in the country of Egypt and is called so from a certain Melitius (??? ?? ?????? ?????), who was a bishop in Thebaid (?? ?? ???????) and belonged to the Catholic ecclesia and